BR  85  .C67  1886 
Cook,  Joseph,  1838-1901. 
Orient,  with  preludes  on 
current  events 


Boston  Monday  Lectures. 

BY      JOSEPH     COOK. 


BIOLOGY.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events.    Three  Colored  Illustrations. 

12ino.    Sixteenth  thousand $1.50 

TRANSCENDENTALISM.   With  Preludes  on  Current  Events.     12mo.      Tenth 

thousand 1.50 

ORTHODOXY.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events.    Seventh  Thousand  .        .  1.50 

CONSCIENCE.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events.     Fifth  Thousand      .       .  1.50 

HEREDITY.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events 1.50 

MARRIAGE.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events 1.50 

LABOR.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events 1.50 

SOCIALISM.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events 1.50 

OCCIDENT.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events.    (A  new  volume)      ....  1.50 

ORIENT.    With  Preludes  on  Current  Events.    (A  new  volume  with  Portrait)  .        .  1.50 


"  I  do  not  know  of  any  work  on  Conscience  in  which  the  true  theory  of  ethics  is  so 
clearly  and  forcibly  presented,  together  with  the  logical  inferences  from  it  in  support  of  the 
great  trutlis  of  religion.  The  review  of  the  whimsical  and  shallow  speculations  of  Matthew 
Arnold  is  especially  able  and  satisfactory."  —  Professor  Francis  Bowen,  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. 

"These  Lectures  are  crowded  so  full  of  knowledge,  of  thought,  of  argument,  illumined 
with  such  passages  of  eloquence  and  power,  spiced  so  frequently  with  deep-cutting  though 
good-natured  irony,  that  I  could  make  no  abstract  from  them  without  utterly  mutilating 
tliem."  — /fer.  Dr.  Thomas  Hill,  ex- President  of  Hansard  Universiti/,  in  Christian  Register, 

"Joseph  Cook  is  a  phenomenon  to  be  accounted  for.  No  other  American  orator  has 
done  what  he  has  done,  or  any  thing  like  it;  and,  prior  to  the  experiment,  no  voice  would 
have  been  bold  enough  to  predict  its  success."  — Rev.  Professor  A.  P.  Peabody  of  Harvard 
University. 

"Mr.  Cook  is  a  specialist.  His  work,  as  it  now  stands,  represents  fairly  the  very  latest 
and  best  researches." —  George  M.  Beard,  31. D.,  of  New  lork. 

"By  far  the  most  satisfactory  of  recent  discussions  in  this  field,  both  in  method  and 
execution."  — /"ro/essor  Borden  P.  Bowne  of  Boston  University. 

"  Mr.  Cook  is  a  great  master  of  analysis.  He  shows  singular  justness  of  view  in  his 
manner  of  treating  the  most  difficult  and  perplexing  themes."  —  Princeton  Review. 

"The  Lectures  are  remarkably  eloquent,  vigorous,  and  powerful."— jR.  Payne  Smith, 
Dean  of  Canterbury. 

"They  are  wonderful  specimens  of  shrewd,  clear,  and  vigorous  thinking." — Rev.  Dr. 
Angus,  the  College,  Regent's  Park. 

"These  are  very  wonderful  Lectures."  — J?ev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

"Traversino;  a  very  wide  field,  cutting  right  across  the  territories  of  rival  specialists,  the 
work  on  Biology  contains  not  one  important  scientitic  misstatement,  either  of  fact  or 
theory."—  iSi6/io^fteco  Sacra. 

"  Vigorous  and  suggestive.  Interesting  from  the  glimpses  they  give  of  the  present  phases 
of  speculation  in  what  is  emphatically  the  most  tlioughtful  community  in  the  United 
States."  — Zonrfon  Spectator. 

"  I  admired  the  rhetorical  power  with  which,  before  a  large  mixed  audience,  the  speaker 
knew  how  to  handle  the  difficult  topic  of  biology,  and  to  cause  the  teaching  of  German 
philosophers  and  theologians  to  be  respected."  —  Pro/essor  Schoberlein,  of  Gottingen  Uni- 
versity. 

"His  object  is  the  foundation  of  a  new  and  true  metaphysics  resting  on  a  biological  basis, 
that  is  the  proof  of  the  truth  of  philosophical  theism,  and  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of 
Christianity.  These  intentions  he  carries  out  with  a  full,  and  occasionally  with  a  too  full, 
application  of  his  eminent  oratorical  talent,  and  with  great  sagacity  and  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  leading  works  in  physiology  for  the  last  thirty  years."  — -Pro/esso?-  Ulrici, 
University  of  Halle,  Germany. 


HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  Publishers. 


^  J  ^'' 


I  Boston  Monday  Lectures. 


ORIENT, 


WITH  PRELUDES  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 


By  JOSEPH   COOK. 


Let  us  begin  as  Orientals  and  end  as  Occidentals,  for  these  are 
the  two  halves  of  wisdom. 

Amiel  :  Joiirnal  Intime. 


B 

[feiiii^^ 

BOSTON    AND    NEW   YORK! 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND  COMPANY 

1886. 


Copyright,  1886, 
By  JOSEPH  COOK. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge  : 
Electrotyped  and  printed  by  U.  0.  Iloughton  &  Co. 


To 

THE  MANY  SCORES  OF  FRIENDS 

IN 

ENGLAND,  SCOTLAND,  GERMANY,  INDIA,  CHINA, 
JAPAN,  AND  AUSTRALIA, 

WHOSE  KINDNESS  TO  ME  AND  MINE,  ON  A  TOUR  OF  THE  WORLD, 

HAS  ENCIRCLED  THE   EARTH  FOR  US  WITH 

A  CHAIN  OF   MEMORIES, 

EVERY  LINK  IN  WHICH   IS  GOLDEN, 

Wijis  23oofe 

IS  RESPECTFULLY,   GRATEFULLY,   AND  AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED, 

IN  ASPIRATION  FOR  THE  SUCCESS  OF 

INTERNATIONAL  REFORM, 

AND   THE    GROWTH   OF    THE    SPIRIT   OF  A 

COSMOPOLITAN  CITIZENSHIP. 


"If  intellectual  faculties  are  common  to  all  men,  reason  is  also;  if 
reason  is  common  to  all,  then  conscience,  which  commands  us  what  ta 
do  and  what  not  to  do,  is  common  also;  if  this  is  so,  there  is  a  com- 
mon law  also  ;  if  this  is  so,  we  are  all  members  of  some  political  com- 
munity ;  and  if  this  is  so,  the  whole  world  is  in  a  manner  one  state." 
—  Marcus  Aurelius  :  Thoughts,  iv,  4. 


"  The  sun-orb  sings,  in  emulation, 
'Mid  brother  spheres,  his  ancient  round : 
His  path  predestined  through  creation 
He  ends  with  step  of  thunder  sound. 
The  angels  from  his  vision  splendid 
Draw  power  whose  measure  none  can  say ; 
The  lofty  works,  uncomprehended. 
Are  bright  as  on  the  earliest  day. 

"  And  swift  and  swift  beyond  conceiving, 
The  splendor  of  the  world  goes  round ; 
Day's  Eden-brightness  still  relieving 
The  aAvful  Night's  intense  profound  : 
The  ocean  tides  in  foam  are  breaking, 
Against  the  rocks'  deep  bases  hurled, 
And  both,  the  spheric  race  partaking, 
Eternal,  swift,  are  onward  hurled." 

Goethe,  Faust  (Taylor's  tr.),  Prologue  in  Heaven. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  object  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectures  is  to  present 
the  results  of  the  freshest  German,  English,  and  American 
scholarship  on  the  more  important  and  difficult  topics  con- 
cerning the  relations  of  Religion  and  Science. 

They  were  begun  in  the  Meionaon  in  1875.  The  au- 
diences gathered  at  noon  on  Mondays  were  of  such  size 
as  to  need  to  be  transferred  to  Park  Street  Church  in  Octo- 
ber, 1876,  and  thence  to  Tremont  Temple,  which  was  often 
more  than  full  during  the  winter  of  1876-77  and  in  that  of 
1877-78.  The  very  capacious  auditorium  of  Tremont  Tem- 
ple was  destroyed  by  fire  in  August,  1879  ;  and  in  Novem- 
ber of  that  year  the  lectures  were  transferred  to  the  Old 
South  Meeting-House,  the  most  interesting  of  the  historic 
edifices  of  New  England. 

The  audiences  have  always  contained  large  numbers  of 
ministers,  teachers,  and  other  educated  men. 

The  thirty-five  lectures  given  in  1876-77  were  reported 
in  the  Boston  Daily  "Advertiser,"  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Bacon, 
stenographer,  and  most  of  them  were  republished  in  full  in 
New  York  and  London.  They  are  contained  in  the  first, 
second,  and  third  volumes  of  Boston  Monday  Lectures, 
entitled  "  Biology,"  "  Transcendentalism,"  and  "  Ortho- 
doxy." 

The  thirty  lectures  given  in  1877-78  were  reported  by 
Mr.  Bacon  for  the  "  Advertiser,"  and  republished  in  full  in 


Vlll  INTEODUCTION. 

New  York  and  London.  They  are  contained  in  the  fourth, 
fifth,  and  sixth  volumes  of  Boston  Monday  Lectures,  en- 
titled "  Conscience,"  "  Heredity,"  and  "  Marriage." 

The  twenty  lectures  given  in  1878-79  were  reported  by 
Mr.  Bacon  for  the  "Advertiser,"  and  republished  in  full 
in  New  York  and  London.  They  are  contained  in  the  sev- 
enth and  eighth  volumes  of  Boston  Monday  Lectures,  en- 
titled "  Labor  "  and  "  Socialism." 

In  1880,  1881,  and  1882,  Mr.  Cook  made  a  tour  of  the 
world,  as  traveler  and  lecturer. 

During  his  absence  there  was  given  in  Tremont  Temple, 
in  the  Boston  Monday  Lectureship,  a  course  of  ten  lectures, 
which  are  now  included  in  the  volume  entitled  "  Christ  and 
Modern  Thought."     The  lecturers  were  :  — 

President  James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of  Princeton 
College. 

Ex-President  Mark  Hopkins,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of  Wil- 
liams College. 

President  E.  G.  Robinson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of  Brown 
University. 

Rev.  S.  W.  Dike. 

Rev.  Thomas  Guard,  D.  D. 

Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  M.  Clark,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Prof.  George  R.  Crooks,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of  Drew 
Theological  Seminary. 

Rev.  G.  B.  Thomas,  D.  D. 

Rev.  John  Gotton  Smith,  D.  D. 

Chancellor  Howard  Crosby,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

In  the  volume  made  up  of  the  lectures  of  these  gentle- 
men, there  was  published  a  preliminary  lecture  on  "  The 
Methods  of  Meeting  Modern  Unbelief,"  given  by  Mr.  Cook 
in  London.  In  the  English  edition  there  was  included 
Wendell  Phillips'  Reply  to  Chancellor  Crosby's  View  of  the 
Temperance  Question. 


INTEODUCTION.  ix 

After  returning  from  his  tour  of  the  world,  Mr.  Cook 
gave  in  the  Boston  Monday  Lectureship,  in  Tremont  Tem- 
ple, the  twelve  lectures  which  are  included  in  the  ninth  and 
tenth  volumes  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectures,  entitled 
"  Occident  "  and  '*  Orient."  They  were  reported  steno- 
graphically  by  Mr.  Bacon,  and  republished  in  full  in  New 
York,  Chicago,  London,  and  other  cities. 

The  following  is  from  the  Report  of  the  Boston  Mon- 
day Lectureship  for  1883:  — 

1.  The  published  reports*  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectures 
are  now  estimated  to  reach  in  America,  England,  Scotland, 
India,  and  Australia  more  than  a  million  readers  weekly. 

2.  The  audiences  in  Boston  for  the  season  of  1883  —  the 
seventh  of  the  Lectureship  —  have  been  of  unprecedented 
quantity  and  quality,  often  exceeding  the  seating  capacity 
of  Tremont  Temple. 

3.  The  Monday  Lectures  given  in  past  years  now  make 
eight  volumes  in  their  American  form,  and  of  these  several 
have  reached  a  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  edition.  There  are  in 
England  thirteen  different  forms  of  these  volumes  as  repub- 
lished in  London.  It  is  affirmed  by  their  numerous  publish- 
ers that  no  volumes  on  similar  themes  have  ever  been  circu- 
lated more  widely  than  these  through  England,  Scotland, 
India,  and  Australia. 

4.  During  Mr.  Cook's  recent  absence  from  Boston,  he 
made  a  tour  of  the  world,  the  journey  extending  through 
two  years  and  seventy-seven  days.  He  lectured  oftener,  on 
the  average,  than  every  other  working-day,  while  on  the 
land.  In  all  the  great  cities  visited  there  were  immense 
audiences.  The  principal  subjects  of  the  lectures  were  the 
chief  questions  now  in  discussion  between  Christianity  on 
the  one  hand,  and  philosophy  and  physical  science  on  the 
other.  It  is  believed  that  topics  equally  difficult  and  seri- 
ous were  never  before  carried  through  a  tour  of  similar  ex- 
tent and  success. 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

There  were  135  public  appearances  in  the  United  King- 
dom, 42  in  India  and  Ceylon,  5  in  China,  12  in  Japan,  and 
50  in  Australia. 

5.  Among  the  distinguished  gentlemen  who  have  given 
written  permission  for  the  use  of  their  names  on  the  Honor- 
ary Committee  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectureship,  are  :  -~ 

Rev.  James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  President  of  Princeton 
College  ;  Rev.  R.  S.  Stores,  D.  D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ;  Rev. 
RoswELL  D.  Hitchcock,  D.  D.,  New  York  city ;  Rev. 
William  M.  Taylor,  D.  D.,  New  York  city ;  Prof.  Ed- 
wards A.  Park,  D.  D.,  Andover,  Mass. ;  Prof.  J.  P.  Gul- 
liver, Andover,  Mass. ;  Bishop  F.  D.  Huntington,  Syra- 
cuse, N.  Y. ;  Rev.  T.  M.  Post,  D.  D.,  St.  Louis  ;  Prof.  S. 
L  Curtiss,  Chicago  Theological  Seminary  ;  President 
George  F.  Magoun,  Iowa  College ;  Bishop  Benjamin  N. 
Paddock  ;  Hon.  A.  H.  Rice,  Ex-Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  Hon  William  Claflin,  Ex-Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  Prof.  Borden  P.  Bowne,  Boston  University ;  Sam- 
uel Johnson,  Boston ;  Wendell  Phillips,  Boston ; 
Rev.  N.  G.  Clark,  D.  D.,  Boston  ;  Rev.  Otis  Gibson, 
San  Francisco ;  Gen.  John  Eaton,  Department  of  the 
Interior,  Washington,  D.  C. 

^  A.  J.  Gordon,  President. 

M.  R.  Deming,  Secretary  and  Treasurer, 
G.  A.  FoxCROFT,  Business  Manager, 

As  the  matter  in  the  Preludes  refers  to  current  reform, 
the  expressions  of  the  audiences,  whether  favorable  or  un- 
favorable, are  retained  as  recorded  by  the  stenographer; 
but  these  have  been  omitted  in  the  Lectures,  as  the  latter 
have  been  considerably  revised  and  enlarged  since  delivery. 

Among  the  more  salient  points  of  the  present  volume 
will  be  found  — 

I.  A  study  of  the  character  and  career  of  Keslmb  Chun- 
der  Sen  and  of  the  contributions  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  of 


INTEODUCTION.  XI 

ludia  to  the  science  of  Comparative  Theology.     (See  Lect. 
III.  and  Appendix  III.) 

2.  A  discussion  of  the  origin  and  possible  future  of  re- 
cent reforms  in  Japan.  (See  Lect.  V.,  Appendix  IV.,  and 
especially  Appendix  V.) 

3.  A  series  of  descriptive  passages  concerning  Palestine, 
the  Taj  Mahal,  the  Himalayas,  China,  and  the  Southern 
Pacific  Ocean.  (See  Lecture  I.,  Appendices  I.  and  II., 
and  Lectures  IV.  and  VI.) 

4.  A  consideration  of  the  achievements  and  probable 
future  of  civilization  is  Australasia.      (See  Lecture  VI.) 

5.  A  discussion  of  the  International  Duties  of  Christen- 
dom and  of  the  prospects  of  Imperial  Federation  in  the 
British  Empire.     (See  Prelude  VI.) 


LIST  OF  CITIES 

VISITED  IN  MR.  COOK'S  TOUR  OF  THE  WORLD, 


Instead  of  a  map  showing  the  course  of  Mr.  Cook's 
tour  of  the  world,  a  list  of  cities  is  here  given  in  the  order 
in  which  they  were  visited.  The  names  of  those  in  which 
lectures  were  delivered  are  starred.  Those  marked  with 
three  stars  are  those  in  which  courses  of  lectures  were 
given.  The  time  occupied  by  the  whole  tour  was  two  years 
and  seventy-seven  days. 

I.    England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales. 

New 


Steamship     "  Arizona 

York  to  Liverpool. 
Liverpool. 
London.* 
Birmingham  .** 
Stratford-on-Avon. 
Cardiff.** 
Brecon.* 
Swansea.** 
Oxford. 
Sheffield.* 
Bradford.* 
Newcastle.* 
Dewsbury.* 
Leeds.* 
Edinburgh.*** 
Glasgow.*** 
Ayr. 


Mauchline. 

Glasgow.** 

Stirling.* 

Balloch. 

Glasgow.* 

Kilmarnock.* 

Dundee.** 

St.  Andrews. 

Perth.* 

Glasgow.* 

Aberdeen.* 

Elgin.* 

Inverness.* 

Blair  Athol. 

Edinburgh. 

Sunderland.* 

Stockton.* 

Durham.* 


XIV 


LIST   OF   CITIES   VISITED. 


Middlesbrough* 

EdinbuTL^h. 

Newcas  tie-on- Tyne.* 

Jarro\v-on-Tyne.* 

Darlington.* 

Batley.* 

Keighley  * 

York* 

Haiiley* 

Birmingham.* 

Walsall* 

Manchester.* 

Bolton* 

Manchester.** 
Liverpool.* 
Aberavou.* 
INIerthyr  Tydfil.* 
Edinburgh. 
Bolton.*" 
Bradford.* 
Leicester.* 
Walsall.* 
Leicester. 
Nottingham.* 
Huddersfield.* 
Edinburgh.* 
South  Shields.* 
'Halifax.* 
Hawick.* 
Melrose. 
Haddington. 
Edinburgh, 


Dumfries.* 

Craigeuj)uttock. 

Ecclefechan. 

Londonderry.** 

Dublin.** 

Newry.* 

Belfast.* 

Dublin.* 

Belfast.*** 

Dublin.* 

Wolverhampton.* 

Bolton.* 

Manchester.* 

London.* 

Aberdare.* 

Cardiff.* 

Swansea.* 

Treorky.* 

London. 

Huddersfield.* 

Upper  Holloway  * 

London.*** 

Rochdale.* 

Hull.* 

London. 

Tunbridge  Wells. 

Cambridge. 

Ely. 

Bedford. 

Olney. 

Canterbury. 

Dover. 


II.   Germany  and  Switzerland. 


Brussels. 

Battle-field  of  Waterloo. 

Antwerp. 

Cologne. 

Bonn  am  Rhein.* 

Ems. 

Gottingen. 


Berlin. 

Leipzig.* 

Halle. 

Bonn. 

Bingen. 

Heidelberg. 

Baden 


LIST   OF   CITIES   VISITED. 


XV 


Strasburg. 


Berne. 
Interlaken. 
Geneva. 
Coppet. 


Chamounix. 

Martigny. 
Lucerne. 
Fluelen. 
Andermatt. 
St.  Gotthard 


III.  Italy  and  Greece. 


Biasca. 

Stresa. 

Milan. 

Padua. 

Venice. 

Florence. 


Rome.* 

Pompeii. 

Naples.* 

Mediterranean. 

Athens. 

Greece  to  Egypt. 


IV.  Egypt  and  Palestine. 


Alexandria. 

Prom  Alexandria  to  Jaffa. 

Jaffa. 

Jerusalem. 

Bethlehem. 

Jaffa. 

Jaffa  to  Port  Said. 


Port  Said. 

Cairo. 

The  Pyramids. 

Suez. 

The  Eed  Sea. 

Aden. 


V.  India  and  Ceylon. 


Bombay.*** 

Poona.** 

Ahmednagar.* 

Jubbulpore. 

Allahabad. 

Agra. 

Delhi. 

Cawnpore. 

Lucknow.* 

Allahabad.* 

Benares  * 

Calcutta.*** 

Darjeeling. 

Calcutta. 


Bay  of  Bengal. 

Steamer  to  Madras. 

Madras.*** 

Bangalore.** 

Trichinopoly. 

Madura.*** 

Tinnevelly. 

Tuticorin. 

India  to  Ceylon. 

Colombo. 

Kandy.*** 

Colombo.* 

Galle.* 


XVI 


LIST  OF  CITIES  VISITED. 


VI.  China  and  Japan. 


Galle  to  Hong  Kong. 

Hong  Kong. 

Canton.* 

Hong  Kong. 

China  Sea. 

Nagasaki.* 

Steamer,  Inland  Sea. 

Yokohama.* 

Toluo.*** 

Yokohama.* 

Steamer  to  Yokaichi. 

Yokaichi  to  Nagoya. 

Nagoya  to  Sekigahara.* 

Sekigahara  to  Kioto. 


Kioto. 
Nara. 
Kobe.** 
Osaka.* 
Kobe. 
Kioto.** 

Steamer,  Inland  Sea.* 
Nagasaki* 
Steamer,  China  Sea. 
Shanghai.*** 
Steamer  to  Foochow. 
Foochow.* 

Steamship    "  Menmuir,"    Foo- 
chow to  Sydney. 


VII.  Australia,  Tasmania,  New  Zealand,  and  the  Pacific 
,  Ocean. 


Sydney.*** 

Launceston,  Hobart. 

Bathurst.* 

Hobart.*** 

Sydney.* 

Launceston.* 

Goulburn.* 

Melbourne.** 

Melbourne.*** 

Sandihurst.** 

Ballarat.* 

Melbourne.* 

Melbourne. 

Sydney. 

Ballarat.* 

Steamer  to  Brisbane. 

Melbourne.** 

Brisbane.*** 

Geelong.* 

Ipswich.* 

Melbourne. 

Brisbane.* 

Steamer  to  Adelaide. 

Steamer  to  Sydney. 

Adelaide.*** 

Sydney. 

Gawler.* 

Steamship   *'  Zealandia,"  from 

Moonta  Mines.* 

Sydney  to  San  Francisco.* 

Adelaide.*** 

Auckland.* 

Steamer  to  Melbourne. 

Honolulu.* 

Melbourne. 

VIII.  A 

MERICA. 

San  Francisco.** 

Omaha.* 

Oakland.* 

Chicago.* 

Denver.* 

Albany. 

Lincoln.* 

Boston.* 

CO]SrTEE"TS. 


LECTURE  I. 

PALESTINE,   EGYPT,   AND   THE    FUTURE   OF   ISLAM. 

PAGE 

Man  at  his  Climax 16 

The  Sinlessness  of  Christ 16 

God  in  History  in  Palestine 16 

A  Progressive  Revelation 17 

Chief  Scenes  of  the  Holy  Land 19 

Approach  to  Jerusalem  during  an  Eclipse          .        o         .         .  21 
Palestine  a  Bridge  between  Egypt  and  Assyria    .        .        .        .23 

Possible  Future  of  Syria 23 

Modern  Jews  in  Palestine 24 

The  Euphrates  Valley  Railway 25 

The  Jordan  Canal 26 

England  in  Egypt 27 

Possible  Restoration  of  the  Caliphate 28 

The  Future  of  Mohammedanism 33 

Abraham's  Oak 36 

Bath  in  the  Jordan  and  in  the  Dead  Sea 38 

Nazareth 40 

The  Sea  of  Galilee 44 

Damascus 46 

Ruins  of  Baalbec .  48 


LECTURE  IL 

ADVANCED   THOUGHT    IN  INDIA. 

Aden 69 

Heat  in  the  Red  Sea 70 

The  Indian  Ocean 71 

Oriental  Skies  at  Night 72 

b 


XYlll  CONTENTS. 

Landing  at  Bombay 74 

Peculiarities  of  the  Hindu  Temperament 76 

Lectures  in  Bombay 77 

The  English  Language  in  India .78 

Lectures  in  Poona,  Allahabad,  and  Benares     ....  80 

Lectures  in  Calcutta 80 

Alexander  Duff  and  Lord  Macaulay 81 

The  Himalayas  from  Daijeeling 81 

What  is  India  ? 83 

Chief  Dates  in  Indian  History 84 

Twelve  Questions  on  India       ....                 ,        ,  86 


LECTURE   III. 

KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU   THEISM. 

Eclectic  Theism  and  the  Brahmo  Somaj 105 

Ram  Mohun  Roy 105 

Debendra  Nath  Tagore 106 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  Ancestry 107 

His  Youth  and  Education 108 

His  Reverence  for  the  Inner  Voice 110 

His  Doctrine  of  Inspiration 110 

His  Relations  to  Unitarianism 112 

His  Genius  as  an  Orator 114 

His  Devotional  Training  of  his  Pupils 115 

Ce;*emonies  in  his  Church 120 

Criticisms  of  his  Opponents 121 

Merits  and  Demerits  of  his  System 122 

The  Theosophists  of  India 124 

Esoteric  Buddhism 126 

The  New  Dispensation 133 

Parsee  Worship  at  Sunset 137 

Parsee  Towers  of  Silence 139 

On  Shipboard  near  Singapore 141 

LECTURE  IV. 

woman's   work    for   woman   in   ASIA. 

Twenty-One  Million  of  Widows  in  India 163 

Their  Desolate  Lives 164 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

Abolition  of  Suttee 165 

Child-Marriages 166 

Need  of  Medical  Missionaries 168 

Zenana  Teaching 169 

Summary  of  Evils  and  Remedies         .        .        .        .        .        .  1 69 

Lectures  in  Ceylon 171 

The  Bitter  Cry  of  Asia 171 

Glimpses  of  the  Cantonese 174 

LECTURE   V. 

JAPAN,    THE    SELF-REFORMED    HERMIT   NATION. 

Physical  and  Spiritual  May  in  Japan 205 

A  Nation  born  in  a  Day 205 

Nagasaki 206 

Faces  of  Aged  Men  and  Women  in  Japan       ....  206 

The  Japanese  Landscape 209 

First  View  of  Fuji-Yama 209 

Yokahama 210 

Japanese  Art 212 

Japanese  Appreciation  of  Natural  Scenery  .        .        .        .212 

Twelve  Lectures  in  Japan 213 

Central  Traits  of  the  Japanese  Character 213 

Causes  of  the  Reform  of  Japan 215 

Extent  of  the  Reform 218 

Decadence  of  Reformed  Buddhism 221 

Meaning  of  Nirvana 222 

Mr.  Neesima 224 

Female  Seminaries  in  Japan 226 

Perils  of  the  Japanese  Future 227 

LECTURE  VI. 

AUSTRALIA,   THE    PACIFIC   OCEAN,    AND   INTERNATIONAL   REFORM. 

The  Yang  Tse  Kiang  River 244 

Lectures  at  Shanghai 244 

Foochow  and  the  Min  River 245 

Last  View  of  Asia 245 

The  Zone  of  Calms 245 

Crossing  the  Equator 246 


XX  CONTENTS. 

Southern  Constellations 247 

The  East  Indian  Archipelago 248 

First  View  of  Australia 248 

An  Anglo-American  Alliance 249 

Chief  Dates  of  Australian  History 250 

Promises  of  the  Australian  Future 251 

Sydney,  Melbourne,  Adelaide 253 

Botany  Bay 254 

Proposed  Australian  Confederation 255 

Perils  of  the  Australian  Future 255 

Climatic  Influences  in  Australia 256 

British  Imperial  Federation 257 

New  Zealand 258 

The  Sandwich  Islands 258 

Aloha 258 

Aspirations  of  Humanity  as  a  Whole 259 

American  Influence  Abroad 260 

Landing  at  the  Golden  Gate 261 


PRELUDE  L 

NATIONAL  AID    TO   EDUCATION. 

Illiteracy  in  the  United  States 3 

High  Schools  and  Normal  Schools 11 

Peril  of  Bondage  to  the  Uneducated 11 

Three  Plans  for  National  Aid  to  Schools 12 

Senator  Blair's  Bill 13 


PRELUDE  XL 

REVIVALS    TRLE   AND  FALSE. 

Lessing's  Test  of  the  Worth  of  Creeds 53 

American  Methods  in  Revivals 54 

Imitation  of  these  Methods  Abroad 54 

Leading  Traits  of  the  Church  for  the  Times      ....  56 

The  Hidden  Half  of  Christian  Unity 60 

Conversation  on  Personal  Religion 61 

Preaching  to  the  Will 66 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  on  Self- Surrender  to  God        ...  67 


CONTENTS. 


XXI 


PRELUDE  III. 

LIMITED   MUNICIPAL    SUFFRAGE   FOR   WOMEN 

One  Fifth  of  our  Population  in  Cities 95 

Woman's  Vote  and  the  Whiskey  Rings 96 

Success  of  Woman's  Suffrage  in  Wyoming          ....  98 

Objections  to  the  Ballot  for  Women 100 

Growing  Perils  of  Municipal  Misrule 103 


PRELUDE  IV. 


RELIGION   IN    COLLEGES    AT    HOME   AND  ABROAD. 


Increase  of  Numbers  of  College  Students     . 

Moral  Poltroonery  in  College  . 

Franklin's  PJan  for  Moral  Perfection  . 

Anticipation  of  Marriage 

Presidents  Hopkins,  Woolsey,  and  McCosh 

Tennyson's  "  Palace  of  Art "    . 

Harvard  University  in  its  Religious  Aspects 

Balance  of  Culture 

Scipio  Af  ricanus 


147 
148 
152 
153 
154 
157 
157 
159 
160 


PRELUDE  V. 

FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF    AMERICA. 

Two  Britains  and  Two  Americas 183 

Ignorant  Critics  of  the  United  States 184 

Merits  and  Demerits  of  American  Journalism     .        .        .  .186 

Australian  Daily  Journals 187 

Comparison  of  British  and  American  Newspapers      .        .  .     188 

American  Manners 192 

Climatic  Influences  in  England  and  America              .        .  .198 


PRELUDE  VI. 

INTERNATIONAL  DUTIES   OF   CHRISTENDOM. 


Christianity  as  an  International  Power 
Moral  Confederation  of  Christendom 


235 


XXU  CONTENTS. 

Arbitration  as  a  Remedy  for  War 236 

Abolition  of  the  Slave-Trade  by  Sea  and  Land       .        .        .  238 

Eights  of  Neutrals  in  Modern  Wars 238 

David  Dudley  Field's  Proposed  International  Code        ,       ,  241 


APPENDIX. 


I.  The  Taj  Mahal 265 

II,  In  the  Himalayas 276 

III.  Death  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen 283 

IV.  Twenty-four  Questions  on  New  Japan     ....  289 
V.  The  Future  of  Japanese  Civilization ;  a  Speech  at  B[ioto    .  311 


PALESTINE,  EGYPT,   AND  THE  FUTURE 
OF  ISLAM. 

WITH  A  PRELUDE   ON 

NATIONAL   AID   TO  EDUCATION. 

THE    ONE    HUNDRED    AND     FIFTY-SEVENTH    LECTURE    IN    THE 

BOSTON    MONDAY    LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED    IN 

TREMONT    TEMPLE,    FEBRUARY  19,    1883. 


"  The  laws  of  the  United  States  present  innumerable  precedents  in 
which  Congress  has  exercised  the  power  to  contribute  toward  the  gen- 
eral education  of  citizens  of  the  new  states,  and  in  no  instance  has 
its  constitutional  right  to  do  so  been  questioned."  —  Chief  Justice 
Waite. 

"In  the  year  1900,  each  of  the  States  lying  between  Maryland  and 
Texas  will  have  a  colored  majority  within  its  borders ;  and  we  shall 
have  eight  minor  republics  of  the  Union  in  which  either  the  colored 
race  will  rule,  or  a  majority  will  be  disfranchised."  —  A.  W.  TouRGtE. 


The  scenery  of  Palestine  is  a  fifth  Gospel."  — Ernest  Kenan. 

"  There  sits  drear  Egypt,  mid  beleaguering  sands, 
Half  woman  and  half  beast, 
The  burnt-out  torch  within  her  mouldering  hands 
That  once  lit  all  the  East." 

J.  R.  Lowell. 


ORIENT 


PRELUDE   I. 

NATIONAL  AID  TO  EDUCATION. 

Aristotle  said  that  whoever  meditates  on  the  art 
of  governing  men  will  perceive  that  it  depends  on  the 
education  of  children. 

The  most  significant  storm  map  of  the  United 
States  is  the  chart  illustrating  the  illiteracy  of  our 
population.  I  open  it  before  you  in  the  plates  29,  30, 
and  31  of  Walker's  "  Statistical  Atlas  of  the  United 
States,"  and  beg  you  to  hover  above  it  long  with  im- 
partial and  searching  gaze.  Notice  how  thick  and 
dark  the  clouds  of  illiteracy  are  becoming  in  the 
Southwest,  and  on  the  Gulf,  and  in  Texas,  and  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  See  how  the 
gray  mists  gather  on  the  great  rivers  of  the  beauti- 
ful lands  of  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  the  Carolinas, 
and  on  the  mountain  regions  of  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky, and  especially  above  the  foreign  population 
and  largest  cities  of  the  Northern  States.  Neither  the 
census  of  1870  nor  that  of  1880  is  faultless  in  accu- 
racy ;  but  in  their  chief  outlines  their  results  are  to 
be  trusted,  when  they  agree,  as  they  do  on  the  points 


4  ORIENT. 

I  am  now  emphasizing.  In  the  chart  whicli  I  hold 
before  you  the  light  yellow  represents  the  school  at- 
tendance. The  other  colors  represent  the  population 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations  and  in  personal  ser- 
vice. Speaking  roundly,  everybody  except  infants 
and  the  aged  ought  to  be  at  school  or  at  work  ;  and 
the  margins  of  these  squares  show  you  the  proportion 
of  our  population  that  is  neither  at  school  nor  at 
work.  Such  of  you  as  have  an  eye  for  scientific  illus- 
trations will  notice  tliat  by  the  often  broad  margins 
here  a  really  immense  population  is  indicated,  and  it 
is  out  of  these  marshes  that  the  clouds  rise  which 
cover  the  map  of  illiteracy.  These  most  suggestive 
charts  I  often  keep  lying  open  before  me  in  my 
study,  and  I  sometimes  bend  over  them  in  solitude, 
with  keen,  patriotic  pain  and  suffused  eyes.  They 
represent  the  darkest  hour  in  the  educational  his- 
tory of  the  foremost  Christian  republic  of  all  time. 

Notice,  first,  the  illiteracy  of  the  United  States  as 
a  whole :  — 

'  1.  Five  millions  of  the  fifty  millions  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  over  ten  years  of  age  can- 
not read  ;  six  and  a  quarter  cannot  write. 

2.  Of  the  ten  millions  of  voters  of  the  United 
States,  one  in  five  cannot  write  his  name. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  one  in  five  of  our  population 
is  an  evangelical  church  member.  That  fact  repre- 
sents a  most  hopeful  side  of  our  civilization.  But  at 
the  extreme  left  we  have  among  the  voters  one  in 
five  who  cannot  write,  and  this  is  the  most  alarming 
part  of  our  national  condition. 

3.  The  nation  is  now  charged  with  the  education  of 


NATIONAL   AID   TO   EDUCATION.  5 

eighteen  millions  of  children  and  youth.  Of  these 
ten  and  one  half  millions  are  enrolled  in  public  and 
private  schools,  but  the  average  attendance  is  only 
six  millions.  Seven  and  one-half  millions,  or  five 
twelfths  of  the  whole,  are  growing  up  in  absolute 
ignorance  of  the  English  alphabet. 

4.  At  the  present  rate  of  the  increase  of  the  num- 
ber of  children  not  attending  school,  there  will  be  in 
ten  years  more  children  in  the  United  States  out  of 
schools  than  in  them.  (Senator  Blair's  Speech  on 
Aid  to  Common  Schools.  "  Congressional  Record," 
June  15,  1882,  p.  9.) 

Statements  parallel  to  these  have  been  made  by 
our  distinguished  National  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, General  John  Eaton,  of  Washington,  whose  au- 
thority I  have  here,  in  print  or  writing,  for  all  these 
propositions.  Within  a  fortnight  he  has  sent  to  me, 
most  kindly,  elaborate  collections  of  documents,  some 
of  which  lie  on  this  table ;  and  he  will  send,  I  have 
no  doubt,  to  any  teacher  or  lecturer  making  a  special 
study  of  national  aid  to  education,  similar  collections. 
You  can  verify  these  statistics  for  yourselves.  Sena- 
tor Blair,  of  New  Hampshire,  in  introducing  his  fa- 
mous bill  for  the  prevention  of  national  illiteracy,  put 
all  these  facts  and  many  more  before  Congress.  I 
am  selecting  out  of  the  great  quiver  of  startling  cir- 
cumstances, illustrating  the  extent  of  national  illiter- 
acy, a  few  arrows  that  have  the  sharpest  points,  and 
that  are  so  feathered  that  the  flight  of  them  may  be 
far  and  sure. 

5.  In  all  but  five  of  the  states  there  were  enough 
illiterate  voters  to  have  reversed  the  result  of  the  last 
presidential  election  in  each  of  these  states. 


6  ORIENT. 

6.  It  is  estimated  by  the  statisticians  of  the  gov- 
ernment that  the  total  annual  profit  to  the  country 
by  the  conversion  of  illiterate  into  educated  labor 
could  not  be  less  than  1400,000,000  a  year.  (Gen- 
eral John  Eaton,  National  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion, Address  before  the  Union  League  Club  of  New 
York,  December  21,  1882,  pp.  19,  20.) 

Notice,  next,  the  illiteracy  of  cities  in  the  United 
States : — 

1.  In  thirty-four  cities,  according  to  their  own 
latest  official  reports,  from  50  to  82  per  cent,  of  the 
children  of  school  age  are  not  enrolled  at  all. 

2.  In  eighty-six  cities  the  average  attendance  is 
only  about  two  thirds  of  the  enrollment,  or  one  third 
of  the  population  of  school  age.  These  eighty-six 
cities  contain  over  eight  millions  of  inhabitants,  or 
nearly  one  sixth  of  the  total  population  of  the  coun- 
try; but  more  than  a  third  of  their  population  of 
school  age  never  enter  the  school-room  at  all. 

You  thought  we  had  compulsory  education.  So 
we  have,  on  paper,  in  many  cities  ;  but  in  very  many 
no  compulsory  education,  even  on  paper. 

3.  New  York,  superbest  city  of  my  native  state 
and  of  the  hemisphere,  and  ultimately  to  be  as  large 
as  London,  has  114,000  children  not  enrolled  in  school 
at  all ;  and  the  average  attendance  is  but  132,000, 
out  of  a  school  population  of  385,000.  You  say  that 
many  who  are  not  in  the  public  schools  are  in  private 
schools,  and  I  make  allowance  for  that  fact;  but  it 
does  not  account  for  the  enormous  difference  between 
132,000  and  385,000.  Suppose  that  it  accounts  for  a 
quarter  of  that  difference ;  what  are  you  to  do  with 


NATIONAL  AID  TO   EDUCATION.  7 

the  remaining  three  quarters,  or  nearly  200,000  chil- 
dren, growing  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  with- 
out a  knowledge  of  reading  and  writing  ? 

4.  Chicago,  proud  queen  of  the  great  lakes,  en- 
rolls less  than  half  (forty-three  per  cent.)  of  her 
children  in  the  public  schools ;  less  than  a  third  are 
habitually  in  school ;  fifty-seven  per  cent,  never  at- 
tend at  all,  and  of  these  very  few  receive  instruction 
in  private  schools. 

5.  St.  Louis  has  a  school  population  of  106,000. 
Of  these  55,000  are  enrolled,  36,000  is  the  average 
attendance,  and  50,000  are  growing  up  in  a  savage 
state,  aggravated  by  contact  with  the  depravity  of 
the  worse  parts  of  city  life. 

6.  Cincinnati  has  an  average  attendance  at  school 
of  but  27,000,  or  less  than  a  third  of  the  whole  num- 
ber of  her  school  population ;  while  51,000  are  not 
enrolled  at  all.  Out  of  the  school  population  of  the 
entire  state  only  28,650  are  in  private  schools,  and  of 
these  probably  not  more  than  10,000  can  be  found 
in  Cincinnati,  so  that  40,000  children  in  that  city 
are  to-day  growing  up  in  dense  ignorance.  (Senator 
Blair's  Speech,  cited  above,  p.  9.  See  also  the  Tables 
on  Illiteracy,  prepared  by  General  Eaton.) 

Cincinnati  is  not  the  worst  of  our  great  cities,  and 
Ohio  is  the  mother  of  Presidents,  and  in  most  re- 
spects a  model  commonwealth.  Three  of  these  cities 
have  sprung  up  in  the  Northwest,  —  that  region  of 
our  country  which  has  had  enormous  aid  from  gov- 
ernment for  common-school  purposes. 

Notice,  thirdly,  the  illiteracy  in  the  Southern  States. 
I  place  this  topic  after  the  theme  of  illiteracy  in 


8  ORIENT. 

northern  cities,  lest  I  should  seem  to  be  moved  by 
partisan  feeling,  or  should  be  accused  of  not  remem- 
bering with  sufficient  vividness  the  mighty  financial 
reverses  of  the  South  at  the  close  of  the  Rebellion. 
I  beg  leave  to  state  that  I  quite  agree  with  Mr.  Mayo 
in  his  admirable  address  before  the  gathering  of  the 
friends  of  social  science  at  Saratoga,  last  summer, 
when  he  says,  after  traveling  three  years  through 
the  South,  that  he  believes  the  population  of  that  sec- 
tion of  our  Union  has  done  more  in  proportion  to  its 
wealth  for  common-school  education  in  the  last  ten 
years  than  the  northern  portion  of  our  Union.  Never- 
theless, here  are  two  facts  of  huge  significance  :  — 

1.  Thirty-two  and  three  tenths  per  cent,  of  the 
voters  in  the  South  are  illiterate.  Of  these  69.7  are 
colored  and  30.3  are  whites. 

2.  In  spite  of  all  the  appliances  of  education,  the 
increase  of  illiterate  voters  in  the  South  from  1870  to 
1880  was  187,671.  "  In  more  than  one  third  of  the 
Union  the  ignorant  voters  are  almost  one  third  of  the 
total  number  of  voters."  (President  Hayes's  Address 
at  Cleveland,  October,  1882.) 

Notice,  lastly,  illiteracy  in  the  territories :  — 

1.  In  New  Mexico  forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  white 
population  over  ten  years  of  age,  and  sixty-nine  per 
cent,  of  the  colored  population,  cannot  write. 

2.  In  Alaska,  to  our  most  searching  shame,  —  a 
territory  wholly  under  the  control  of  Congress,  and  as 
large  as  the  whole  American  Union  east  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  north  of  the  Gulf  States,  —  Congress 
leaves  a  population  of  30,000  hardy  people  without 
any  legal  provision  at  all  for  the  education  of  their 
children. 


NATIONAL   AID   TO   EDUCATION.  9 

Storm  East,  storm  West,  storm  North,  storm  South, 
storm  especially  in  the  Southwest ! 

While  illiteracy,  either  as  a  haze  or  a  dark  threat, 
occupies  so  much  of  our  national  sky,  what  is  to 
happen  if  the  opinions  of  his  excellency,  the  present 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  prevail  concerning  the 
withdrawal  of  state  aid  from  normal  schools,  or  the 
reduction  of  the  salaries  of  male  teachers  in  the  com- 
mon schools  ?  Summarize  the  points  in  his  recent 
message  which  are  unfriendly  to  the  present  Massa- 
chusetts school  system,  and  call  his  excellency's  edu- 
cational policy  Butlerism.  Let  the  system  of  gov- 
ernmental action  he  recommends  be  adopted,  let  But- 
lerism prevail,  and  are  the  storms  which  national 
illiteracy  is  sure  to  engender  likely  to  be  averted? 
Is  Butlerism  the  Ariel  to  control  the  Caliban  of  the 
ignorant  suffrage  of  the  United  States  ?  That  is  a 
fair  question.  A  very  bold  one,  indeed  ;  but  it  is  the 
business  of  the  independent  platform  to  be  bold.  I 
am  not  a  politician.  I  am  not  trying  to  grind  any 
axe  on  any  one  of  the  forty  political  grindstones  of 
this  Republic,  nor  have  I  any  political  head  to  be 
decapitated.  [Laughter.]  My  conviction  is  that 
national  illiteracy  and  Butlerism  stand  to  each  other 
in  the  relations  of  fire  and  fan.  Butlerism  and  na- 
tional illiteracy  put  together  would  ruin  the  nation. 
[Applause.] 

On  former  occasions  I  have  defended  the  normal 
schools  of  this  state,  and,  indeed,  they  are  sufficiently 
defended  by  Colonel  Higginson's  recent  beautiful 
apologue  of  the  farmer  and  his  plow.  (See  "  Jour- 
nal of  Education,"  1883.)     We   exempt   the   plow 


10  ORIENT. 

from  legal  seizure  wlien  a  man  cannot  pay  his  debts. 
Why?  Because  this  instrument  is  one  of  the  chief 
means  by  which  its  owner  is  supposed  to  obtain  his 
livelihood.  What  the  plow  is  to  the  man  who  de- 
pends on  the  soil  for  his  sustenance,  the  normal 
schools,  educating  teachers  for  the  common  schools, 
are  to  the  whole  common-school  system.  The  un- 
kind remarks  of  his  excellency  concerning  the  state 
normal  schools  are  contrary  to  what  the  Peabody 
Fund  and  its  administrators  have  taught  us,  for  a 
great  portion  of  that  fund  goes  for  the  education  of 
teachers.  His  excellency's  remarks  almost  amount 
to  saying  :  "  Cut  down  the  tree.  It  is  of  no  use  to 
us.     All  we  want  is  its  shade."     [Laughter.] 

Give  us  the  normal  schools  to  educate  a  competent 
class  of  teachers,  and  give  us  high  schools,  with  prac- 
tical courses  of  study,  as  a  link  of  silver  between  the 
common  schools,  or  the  link  of  iron,  and  the  univer- 
sities, or  the  link  of  gold,  and  we  can  hold  our  popula- 
tion together  through  all  its  orders,  from  its  less  well 
educated  to  the  best  educated  classes.  One  of  the 
hugest  needs  of  this  country  and  of  many  another 
country  is  a  middle  link  of  education  between  the 
best  cultured  and  those  who  have  only  elementary 
instruction.  The  masses  of  our  people  very  soon  will 
cease  to  believe  in  highly  intellectual  and  thoroughly 
trained  men  as  leaders,  unless  there  be  high  schools 
to  lift  pupils  from  the  very  bottom  of  the  social  scale 
and  educate  the  brightest  minds  into  sympathy  with 
the  best  educated  circles.  Our  government  rests  on 
the  people  at  large ;  but  in  any  severe  strain  it  de- 
pends on  the  silver  link  more  than  on  the  golden  or 


NATIONAL  AID  TO   EDUCATION.  11 

the  iron.  A  man  who  is  too  highly  educated  in  this 
country  loses  a  certain  amount  of  political  influence. 
A  man  who  is  very  ignorant  must,  of  course,  lose  in- 
fluence ;  but  if  we  have  not  high  schools,  if  we  have 
not  advanced  grammar  schools,  to  carry  the  best  in- 
tellects of  the  people  up  into  the  region  where  they 
at  least  appreciate  the  highest  thought,  although 
they  may  not  be  able  to  produce  it,  we  are  likely  to 
be  led  from  the  bottom,  and  not  from  the  top  of  so- 
ciety. Unless  we  have  normal  schools,  and  high 
schools  as  a  middle  link,  we  cannot  be  led  even  by 
the  middle  portion  of  our  population,  but  shall  be  led 
by  the  lowest.  In  the  name  of  political  necessity 
and  of  the  interest  of  all  classes  of  the  people,  I  de- 
fend the  high  schools  and  the  normal  schools.  I  de- 
fend that  continuity  of  educational  institutions  which 
begins  at  the  lowest  round  of  the  common-school  lad- 
der, —  a  round  that  ought  to  stand  in  the  gutter  and 
lift  the  worthy  pupil,  of  whatever  social  rank,  to  the 
upper  round,  on  a  level  as  high  as  education  has 
reached  anywhere  on  earth.  Let  us  make  the  Amer- 
ican educational  ladder  continuous,  with  no  gaps,  so 
that  the  poorest  man,  if  he  have  the  ability,  may  go 
up  to  the  very  top.  Without  vigorous  intermediate^  as 
well  as  primary  and  collegiate  education,  any  nation 
under  universal  suffrage  is  likely  to  fall  into  bondage 
to  the  uneducated. 

National  aid  to  education  is  the  only  adequate  rem- 
edy for  the  national  evil  of  illiteracy.  If  the  attitude 
of  Congress  is  to  be  taken  as  representing  that  of  the 
people  at  large,  public  opinion  is  yet  very  far  from 
having  risen  to  the  height  the  facts  require  us  to 


12  ORIENT. 

reach,  if  we  are  to  meet  the  demands  of  this  case. 
Many  a  country  is  much  more  sensitive  to  its  illiter- 
acy than  we  appear  to  be  to  that  of  our  own  nation. 
At  this  moment  Greece  expends  more  for  her  common 
schools,  in  proportion  to  her  wealth,  than  we  do.  So 
does  Japan ;  and  the  latter  country  has  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  her  children  in  school  than  we  have.  As 
a  nation,  we  are  not  in  advance  of  Prussia  in  expen- 
ditures for  common  schools.  Even  England  and  Scot- 
land are  verging  close  upon  New  England  in  their 
taxes  for  the  abolition  of  illiteracy.  The  truth  is 
that,  instead  of  being,  as  a  whole,  at  the  front  of  the 
educational  advance  of  civilization,  our  proud  nation 
is  gradually  dropping  into  a  laggard  place.  Of  course, 
in  some  particulars  we  have  difficulties  to  contend 
with  which  foreign  nations  do  not  have  in  equal  de- 
gree ;  but  so  do  they  have  difficulties  which  we  have 
not.  We  have  a  great  foreign  immigration.  We 
have  lately  made  citizens  of  the  vast  colored  popula- 
tion in  the  Southern  States.  No  matter  from  what 
source  illiteracy  has  arisen  among  us,  it  is  our  duty 
to  cancel  it,  in  spite  of  all  difficulties,  and  to  lead  the 
world  in  the  abolition  of  ignorance,  for  our  form  of 
government  more  than  any  other  necessitates  the  edu- 
cation of  the  people  at  large. 

There  are  three  plans  put  forward  as  antidotes  for 
the  giant  mischiefs  of  illiteracy  in  the  United  States : 

1.  An  appropriation  of  1100,000,000  during  the 
next  ten  years,  beginning  with  $15,000,000  annually, 
with  a  gradual  decrease ;  the  money  to  be  distributed 
on  the  basis  of  the  illiteracy  of  citizens  over  ten  years 
of  age  in  the  different  states  and  territories,  accord- 


NATIONAL   AID   TO   EDUCATION.  13 

ing  to  the  census  of  1880,  exclusively  for  common 
schools,  unsectarian  in  character,  one  tenth  of  the 
sum  to  be  used  for  the  training  of  common-school 
teachers.  This  is  the  proposal  made  in  the  Senate 
bill  reported  by  Mr.  Blair,  of  New  Hampshire. 

2.  An  appropriation  of  $10,000,000  annually  for 
five  years,  on  the  same  basis,  for  a  similar  purpose, 
no  state  to  receive  a  larger  sum  than  its  own  appro- 
priation, and  on  condition  of  having  provided  three 
months'  schooling  a  year  for  all  its  children,  five  per 
cent,  to  be  appropriated  to  the  training  of  teachers. 
This  is  the  proposal  made  in  the  House  bill  reported 
by  Mr.  Sherwin,  of  Ilhnois.  (The  Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo's 
Address  before  the  Social  Science  Association,  at 
Saratoga,  September  5,  1882.) 

3.  The  creation  of  a  perpetual  fund,  to  be  com- 
posed of  the  accretions  to  the  Treasury  from  annual 
sales  of  public  lands,  railroad  revenues,  and  other 
sources,  the  interest  of  which  shall  be  distributed  to 
the  states  at  first  upon  the  basis  of  illiteracy,  and 
afterward  according  to  population  ;  one  third  to  be 
appropriated  to  the  support  of  agricultural  colleges, 
and  the  remainder  of  such  interest  to  the  common 
schools.  This  proposal  has  been  pending  in  Con- 
gress for  several  years.  (See  Senator  Blair's  Speech, 
cited  above,  p.  12.) 

This  last  is  a  majestic  scheme.  Next  to  Civil  Ser- 
vice Reform,  it  ought  to  rouse  most  thoroughly  the 
enthusiasm  of  our  cultured  circles  and  younger  men, 
and  so  force  upon  Congress  prompt  action  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  of  the  educated  part  of  society. 
Questions  of  detail  as  to  the  management   of   the 


14  ORIENT. 

funds  given  by  the  nation  in  aid  of  education  in  the 
states  can  only  be  settled  by  experience.  Distinguish 
carefully  national  contribution  from  national  control 
in  this  matter.  The  expenditure  of  the  national 
funds  would,  of  course,  be  watched  by  national  offi- 
cers ;  but  state  rights  would  not  be  invaded  at  all. 
If  there  be  doubt  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  the 
first  and  second  of  the  proposals  just  mentioned, 
there  can  be  none  as  to  that  of  the  third.  As 
to  precedents,  it  is  most  certain  that  we  have  al- 
ready given  large  parts  of  the  public  land  in  the 
Western  and  Northwestern  States  for  the  support  of 
common  school  education.  President  Hayes  has  said 
that  Ohio  owes  her  present  preeminence  in  the 
United  States  as  an  educated  commonwealth  far  more 
to  the  national  aid  which  the  government  gave  to 
her  common  schools,  by  setting  apart  land  in  the 
Northwest  Territory  for  their  support,  than  to  any 
other  cause  whatever.  Her  fat  soil,  her  mighty  com- 
mercial opportunities,  her  vigorous  population  have 
not  done  for  her  what  this  governmental  aid  did. 
We  of  the  old  thirteen  States  have  not  had  as  much 
aid  as  we  have  given ;  but  under  these  new  measures 
we  should  obtain  some  aid,  and  we  need  it,  especially 
where  the  great  cities  are  thrusting  their  illiteracy 
into  such  alarming  prominence.  It  is  only  fair  that 
in  any  new  aid  the  oldest  States  should  have  as- 
sistance according  to  the  extent  of  their  illiteracy. 
Such  a  use  of  public  funds  is  certainly  not  opposed  to 
precedent.  Daniel  Webster  said  it  was  not  contrary 
to  his  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  to  give  a 
large  part  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  public  land 


NATIONAL   AID   TO   EDUCATION.  15 

to  the  quenching  of  illiteracy  and  the  support  of  the 
common-school  education  throughout  the  nation  at 
large. 

My  supreme  argument  in  favor  of  this  superb 
scheme  of  national  aid  to  education  is  the  condition 
of  the  South.  It  was  the  North  that  forced  upon  the 
South  a  large  illiterate  vote.  This  was  a  noble  act, 
justified  by  the  circumstances  of  the  time.  But  the 
war  itself  is  not  fought  out  until  we  enable  the  South- 
ern States  to  conquer  the  perils  of  the  illiteracy 
which  came  into  existence  there  by  the  downfall  of 
slavery  and  by  the  enfranchisement  of  the  blacks. 
Let  us  deliver  America  from  bondage  to  the  unedu- 
cated ;  let  us  end  the  war ;  let  us  have  peace.  [Ap- 
plause.] 


LECTURE  I. 

PALESTINE,    EGYPT,   AND   THE  FUTUEE   OF   ISLAM. 

Once,  and  once  only,  and  in  Palestine,  has  ap- 
peared on  earth  a  perfect  life.  In  the  Holy  Land, 
and  there  only,  and  there  but  once,  has  been  seen 
man  at  his  climax.  The  sinlessness  of  Christ  forbids 
his  possible  classification  with  men.  Events  are 
everything  and  places  nothing  in  the  Holy  Land,  ex- 
cept as  the  latter  illustrate  the  former.  The  scenery 
of  Palestine  is  vrell  said  to  be  a  fifth  Gospel ;  the 
uncovering  of  buried  ruins  in  the  Holy  Land  is  a 
sixth ;  the  indubitable,  current  fulfillment  of  proph- 
ecy as  to  Jerusalem,  the  Jevrs,  and  Christianity,  is 
a  seventh ;  but  these  gospels  are  empty  and  worth- 
less without  the  first  four. 

What  is  to  be  seen  in  Palestine  ?  To  the  south, 
God  in  History ;  to  the  east,  God  in  History  ;  to  the 
north,  God  in  History ;  to  the  west,  God  in  History. 
What  is  to  be  heard  in  Palestine?  On  Lebanon 
at  noon,  on  Calvary  at  midnight,  on  the  Mount  of 
Olives  at  sunrise,  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  at 
sunset,  God,  God,  God,  who  was,  and  is,  and  is  to 
come  !  He  at  whose  words  the  hills  melt  and  the 
mountains  smoke  has  spoken  through  Palestine  as 
through  no  other  trumpet  of  earth  and  time.  It  is 
the  voice  and  not  the  instrument  that  is  holy. 

Now  that  the  mythical  theory  in  explanation  of 


PALESTINE,   EGYPT,    AND   THE   FUTUKE   OF   ISLAM.    17 

the  origin  of  Christianity  is  completely  overthrown, 
the  enlightened  traveler  in  the  Holy  Land  will  take 
as  companions  there  not  Strauss  and  Renan,  but  Ne- 
ander  and  Ewald  and  Keim  and  Stanley  and  Farrar 
and  Weiss  and  Edersheim. 

The  most  important  question  ever  raised  by  re- 
ligious or  philosophical  inquiry  —  How  can  the  soul 
be  delivered  from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  it  ? 
—  has  received  in  Palestine,  and  not  in  Greece,  not 
in  Rome,  not  in  India,  nor  elsewhere,  a  satisfactory 
answer. 

A  progressive  revelation  extending  through  many 
ages,  and  contained  in  both  the  events  and  the  incul- 
cations recorded  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  is  unified  by 
the  single  purpose  of  teaching  the  necessity  and  the 
methods  of  deliverance  from  the  love  and  the  guilt 
of  sin. 

It  is  no  more  certain  that  it  was  given  to  Greece 
to  teach  art,  philosc^hy,  and  eloquence,  and  to  Rome 
to  teach  politics  and  jurisprudence,  than  that  it  was 
given  to  Palestine  to  instruct  men  in  the  way,  the 
truth,  and  the  life  of  reconciliation  with  God. 

Wholly  peculiar  was  this  mission,  and  as  certainly 
supernatural  as  it  was  natural,  and  hardly  less  as- 
tounding in  the  latter  aspect  than  in  the  former. 
The  natural  is  always  based  on  the  supernatural. 
Only  a  natural  supernaturalism  explains  either  na- 
ture or  history. 

It  is  historically  incontrovertible  that  in  Palestine 

appeared   He  whose  precept,   example,  and  pierced 

Right  Hand  have  lifted  heathenism  off  its  hinges,  and 

turned  into  new  channels  the  course  of  the  dolorous 

2 


18  ORIENT. 

and  accursed  ages.  All  the  details  of  his  earthly- 
life  illuminate  his  message.  Christ  was  a  Revela- 
tion ;  and  these  are  indubitably 

"  those  holy  fields, 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  ble.ssed  feet, 
Which  '  eighteen '  hundred  years  ago  were  nailed 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross." 

1  King  Henry  IV.  I.  1. 

God  in  a  progressive  Apocalypse,  the  esoteric 
Egyptian  religion,  the  Decalogue,  the  Psalms,  the 
Prophets,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Crucifixion, 
the  Resurrection,  the  progress  of  Christianity  through- 
out the  ages,  —  these  are  the  stupendous  themes 
which  assail  the  awakened  soul  in  the  Holy  Land, 
and  fill  the  air  as  with  the  presence  of  archangels. 
In  their  company  one  prefers  frequent  withdrawal 
from  average  human  companionship.  As  to  the  ho- 
liest of  the  soul's  experiences  in  such  solitude,  speech 
is  silvern  ;  silence  is  golden.      'i 

The  wise  student  in  travel  will  not  allow  the  heav- 
enly visions  to  be  obscured  by  the  common  dust  of 
the  Holy  Land;  the  great  historic  events,  and  the 
transfigured  places,  by  the  trivialities,  the  squalor,  the 
offensive  moral  details  of  Arab  and  Turkish  life.  A 
strong  grasp  on  great  essentials,  a  rigorous  inatten- 
tion to  unessentials,  make  the  day  electric  among  the 
holy  hills  :  the  reverse  of  these  conditions  may  cause 
much  of  a  traveler's  time  there  to  become  disen- 
chanting and  commonplace.  It  is  important  to  be 
much  alone  in  Palestine. 

1.  What  are  the  experiences  which  live  longest  in 
the  crowded  gallery  of  memories  which  a  traveler 
brings  back  from  the  Holy  Land  ? 


PALESTINE,   EGYPT,   AND   THE   FUTUKE   OF  ISLAM.    19 

The  approach  to  Jerusalem  for  the  first  time ;  the 
cloud  of  historic  presences ;  the  holy  hush  of  the 
soul ;  the  earliest  glimpse  of  the  gray  wall  through 
the  olive  orchards  ;  the  unutterable  thoughts  of  the 
events  which  have  ruled  the  world  from  Olivet  and 
Calvary ;  the  trance  of  religious  emotion  ;  the  en- 
trance through  the  Jaffa  Gate  near  that  tower  of 
Hippicus,  which  Christ  saw  and  Titus  spared  ;  the 
ringing  of  the  horse's  hoofs  on  the  pavement  of  Jeru- 
salem. 

The  first  visit  to  Gethsemane  with  its  ancient 
olives  and  its  immeasurably  moving  associations. 

The  earliest  gaze  from  the  height  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives  westward  upon  Jerusalem  as  a  whole,  and 
eastward  into  that  strange  depression  in  which  the 
Dead  Sea  lies. 

The  Holy  Sepulchre,  with  its  ever-burning  lights 
shining  on  crowds  of  pilgrims  from  all  Christendom, 
—  Greek,  Russian,  Armenian,  Syrian,  Catholic,  and 
Protestant,  all  gathered  beneath  one  dome. 

The  first  view  of  what  was  probably  Calvary,  —  the 
skull-shaped  height  north  of  Jerusalem,  visible  from 
the  walls  and  from  Olivet  and  Scopus,  and  fully  meet- 
ing, as  no  other  place  does,  the  requirements  of  the 
Scriptural  picture  of  the  Crucifixion  and  of  the  mul- 
titudes who  came  together  at  that  sight,  when  the 
heavens  were  darkened  and  the  rocks  rent. 

All  the  history  of  the  Roman  siege  of  Jerusalem, 
written,  as  it  were,  on  the  sky  and  on  the  hills. 

The  Jews'  wailing  place,  in  a  city  that  has  seen 
twenty-seven  sieges  ;  the  poor,  clean  costumes  of  the 
Jewish  women ;  the  fine-fibred  complexions ;  the  end- 


20  ORIENT. 

lessly  pathetic  undulating  cry,  continued  hour  by  hour, 
in  presence  of  the  few  remaining  great  stones  of  the 
temple :  "  The  heathen,  O  Lord,  are  come  into  thine 
inheritance  ;  "  and  the  answering  echo  of  fulfilled 
prophecy :  "  They  shall  lay  thee  even  with  the 
ground,  and  thy  children  within  thee." 

A  bath  in  the  Jordan  and  one  in  the  Dead  Sea,  in 
which  it  is  nearly  impossible  to  sink. 

A  morning  in  the  fields  in  which  Ruth  gleaned 
with  Boaz. 

A  morning,  a  noon,  a  sunset,  a  night  in  the  Church 
of  the  Nativity  at  Bethlehem. 

A  noon  beneath  Abraham's  oak  and  at  the  cave 
of  Macpelah. 

A  morning  at  Jacob's  well  in  presence  of  Ebal  and 
Gerizim. 

The  unchanged  stupendous  outlook  from  the  hill 
behind  Nazareth,  vast  snowy  Hermon  in  the  north- 
east, the  Jordan  Valley  and  the  Esdraelon  plain  to 
the  south,  Carmel  and  the  Mediterranean  to  the  west, 
, —  the  very  horizon  that  Christ  saw. 

A  Sabbath  on  a  convent  roof  at  the  edge  of  the 
sea  of  Tiberias,  and  among  the  flaming  oleanders  of 
the  plain  of  Gennesaret. 

A  morning  among  the  nets  that  fishermen  spread 
on  the  ruins  of  Tyre,  and  another  at  Sidon. 

Damascus  and  its  sea  of  gardens  and  its  street 
called  Straight. 

Baalbec  with  its  colossal  hewn  stones,  the  largest 
ever  built  into  any  structure  erected  by  man. 

Lebanon  uttering  its  farewells  to  the  setting  and 
its  greetings  to  the  rising  sun,  and  in  company  with 
moon  and  stars. 


PALESTINE,    EGYPT,    AND   THE   FUTURE   OF  ISLAM.    21 

2.  Is  Palestine  ever  to  rise  from  the  desolation 
into  which  she  has  been  trodden  down  by  six  hun- 
dred years  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Mohammedan  races  ? 
The  hoof  of  the  Turkish  power  is  said  to  cause  every 
green  thing  it  touches  to  wither.  When  the  tread  of 
this  hoof  ceases  to  be  felt  in  Palestine,  will  her  vine- 
yards bend  once  more  with  heavy  clusters,  will  her 
valleys  grow  green  again,  will  her  deserts  blossom  as 
the  rose  ? 

Crossing  the  peaceful,  undulating  wheat-fields  of 
the  plain  of  Sharon  on  a  beautiful  afternoon,  it  was 
my  fortune  on  a  second  visit  to  the  Holy  Land  to 
commence  the  ascent  of  the  highlands  of  the  interior 
of  Palestine  just  at  sunset.  Up  rose  the  shield  of  the 
orb  of  night,  broad,  clear,  shimmering  in  its  golden 
vividness,  with  a  beauty  not  often  seen  outside  of 
Oriental  climes.  Its  shape  was  strange,  however,  and 
a  sickly  pallor  began  to  overspread  its  disk.  I  knew 
not  what  was  to  happen,  and  supposed  that  some  op- 
tical illusion  was  caused  by  the  state  of  the  atmos- 
phere. In  a  very  few  minutes  more  the  lower  limb 
of  the  moon  began  to  be  eaten  away  by  a  dense  black 
shadow,  and  little  by  little  the  obscuration  extended 
over  the  whole  orb.  The  night  was  unspeakably 
solemn.  The  moon  appeared  like  a  translucent  ball 
of  amber  floating  among  the  constellations.  Its  posi- 
tion was  not  far  from  the  Pleiades,  Taurus,  and  Orion. 
The  air  seemed  fuller  of  historic  presences  than  the 
sky  of  stars.  While  we  ascended  the  limestone  slopes 
and  drove  through  the  gnarled  dark  ravines  this 
eclipse  went  through  its  various  stages.  Before  we 
reached  the  Holy  City  it  had  passed  away.     Above 


22  ORIENT. 

Mount  Zion  and  the  Valley  of  the  Kedron  and  the 
Mount  of  Olives  hung  the  orb  of  night  in  fleckless 
azure.  Great  Sirius  was  flashing  above  Bethlehem. 
The  outlook  into  the  heavens  above,  as  into  the  heav- 
ens within  the  soul,  appeared  supernatural.  I  do  not 
know  when,  by  any  entrance  into  Jerusalem,  which  I 
have  approached  from  various  points  several  times  in 
different  visits,  I  have  been  so  impressed  as  by  this 
approach  during  an  eclipse  and  by  this  entrance  after 
its  departure.  In  that  eclipse  of  the  moon  I  had  be- 
fore me  a  representation  of  Palestine  under  the  de- 
grading tyrannies  of  Islam.  The  full  orb  in  the  top 
of  the  heavens  is  reformed  Palestine.  For  one  I  be- 
lieve that  we  shall  see  this  orb  floating  unobscured 
just  as  soon  as  Turkish  power  is  driven  out  of  Europe 
and  Asia  Minor.  May  Providence  speed  the  day  of 
such  deliverance  !  Would  God  that  Palestine  were 
under  a  wise  European  protectorate ! 

Palestine  is  a  bridge  between  the  Valley  of  the 
Nile  and  that  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  In  the 
most  celebrated  earlier  ages  of  sacred  history  these 
valleys  contained  the  foremost  civilization  of  the 
earth,  except  that  which  was  coming  into  existence 
in  Rome  and  Greece.  In  the  great  periods  of  Old 
Testament  history,  Egypt  and  Assyria  were  constantly 
sending  armies  over  the  bridge  of  Palestine.  Intel- 
lectual, social,  military,  religious  influences  stormed 
to  and  fro  over  this  narrow  highway,  and  Palestine 
was  able  thus  to  take  into  its  very  heart  the  foremost 
impulses  and  the  best  thought  of  the  world,  as  well 
as  the  worst.  Sometimes  trodden  down  under  the 
tyrannies  of  Babylon,  the  Holy  Land  was  yet  the 


PALESTINE,   EGYPT,   AND   THE   FUTURE   OF  ISLAM.    23 

teacher  of  its  greatest  oppressors.  Large  parts  of  its 
population,  however,  were  so  infected  by  the  poisons 
of  the  Valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  as  to  drop 
off  from  the  divine  stem  and  wither,  and  have  drifted 
into  oblivion  in  history. 

Palestine  never  will  be  as  great  politically  and  in- 
dustrially as  she  has  been  until  the  Valley  of  the  Nile 
and  that  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  are  again  as 
great  as  they  once  were  in  matters  political  and  liter- 
ary, commercial  and  religious.  Fill  up  the  Valley  of 
the  Nile  with  a  better  civilization  ;  let  liberty  and 
order  be  introduced  into  Asia  Minor;  let  the  his- 
toric soil  between  Mount  Lebanon  and  the  head  of 
the  Persian  Gulf  be  traversed  by  a  railway  which 
would  not  need  to  be  as  long  as  the  Pacific  Railway 
from  Omaha  to  San  Francisco,  and  would  by  no 
means  be  as  difficult  to  build ;  let  the  advance  of  the 
Occident  toward  the  rising  sun  bring  noble  industries 
into  Egypt  and  the  old  lands  once  governed  by  the 
Medes  and  Persians  ;  let  either  Russia  or  England, 
or  any  power  to  whom  God  in  his  providence  may 
assign  this  huge  task,  regenerate  the  valleys  of  the 
Nile  and  Euphrates,  and  I  believe  that  Palestine  may 
again  rise  and  shine  politically  and  industrially,  and, 
if  God  will,  religiously. 

As  I  do  not  see  any  immediate  prospect  of  the 
swift  regeneration  of  the  Valley  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  no  very  definite  promise  of  that  of  the  Nile,  I 
am  not  one  of  those  who  think  that  Palestine  soon, 
under  the  stimulus  of  colonization  from  America  or 
Europe,  or  under  incitements  from  the  return  of  the 
Jews,  is  to  rise  to  industrial  or  political  greatness. 


24  ORIENT. 

She  is,  indeed,  greatly  altered  in  her  physical  capac- 
ties.  The  old  terraces  are  broken  down.  The  foxes 
have  their  holes  and  the  birds  their  nests  where 
prophecy  predicted  that  they  should  have  them.  I 
am  not  sure  that  mountainous  Palestine  can  ever  be 
made  to  seem  to  be  a  fertile  region  to  those  who  have 
had  homes  on  the  fat  lands  of  the  Rhine  or  the 
Thames,  the  Hudson  or  the  Mississippi.  To-day  Pal- 
estine, in  large  parts,  is  so  desolate  that  the  twitter- 
ing birds  cannot  fly  over  it  without  haversacks.  You 
are  confronted  in  nearly  all  directions  with  desola- 
tion fulfilling  prophecy  to  the  letter. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  signs  of  improvement  in 
many  portions  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  on  these  a 
visitor  there  dwells  with  the  utmost  interest.  There 
is  a  new  Jerusalem  growing  up  outside  the  walls  of 
the  old  city.  As  travelers  here  will  justify  me  in 
saying,  the  new  city  is  much  more  pleasant  as  a  res- 
idence than  the  old  one,  and  in  everything  except 
historic  associations  is  the  more  dignified  part  of  that 
great  collection  of  stone  dwellings  on  the  ancient 
sites  of  the  sacred  city.  Russia  is  doing  marvelous 
things  for  the  progress  of  the  Greek  Church  at  Jeru- 
salem ;  the  Armenian  and  the  Romish  Churches  are 
effecting  many  improvements  there. 

3.  Are  the  scattered  Israelites  of  the  world  likely 
to  be  restored  in  any  large  numbers  to  the  land  of 
their  ancestors  ? 

A  certain  amount  of  immigration  is  setting  into 
the  Holy  Land  from  all  parts  of  the  Jewish  world  — 
not  a  very  deep  tide  nor  broad,  only  a  little  rill ;  and 
not  always  the  young  people  at  that.     You  go  to  the 


PALESTINE,   EGYPT,   AND   THE   FUTURE  OP  ISLAM.    25 

Jews'  wailing-place,  and  in  the  hours  you  stand  there, 
watching  the  swaying  forms  of  the  mourners,  as  they 
read  the  lamentations  of  the  prophets  over  the  beau- 
tiful stones  of  their  temple,  you  notice  again  and 
again  that  the  proportion  of  old  men  is  very  large. 
With  fine  quality  of  fibre,  clearness  of  skin,  no  vicious 
opaqueness  of  complexion,  such  as  you  meet  with  only 
too  often  in  the  polygamous  Arab  or  Turk,  these  peo- 
ple are  plainly  elect  even  yet ;  but  they  have  com© 
there  to  die.  They  have  schools,  they  teach  pupils 
to  be  sent  into  various  parts  of  the  world ;  Jerusalem 
is  becoming  the  headquarters  of  modern  Israel ;  biit 
there  is  not  depth  nor  breadth  enough  in  this  immi- 
gration to  produce  swift  changes  in  the  Holy  Land. 
It  appears  certain  that  nothing  can  regenerate  Pal- 
estine to  the  extent  of  its  capacity,  in  the  present 
state  of  the  Nile  Valley  and  the  Euphrates,  except 
the  withdrawal  of  all  Syria  from  under  the  Turkish 
power. 

4.  What  are  the  prospects  of  a  railway  through 
the  Valley  of  the  Euphrates  ? 

Should  the  Turkish  Empire  dissolve  and  the  states 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  in  Asia  Minor  be- 
come prosperous,  their  interests  would  gradually  force 
the  construction  of  a  railway  from  Constantinople, 
or  from  the  site  of  ancient  Antioch,  to  the  head  of 
the  Persian  Gulf.  England  has  most  weighty  rea- 
sons for  building  such  a  road.  It  would  greatly 
shorten  her  path  to  India.  It  would  be  a  bulwark 
against  the  aggressions  of  Russia  in  Western  Asia. 
It  would  be  the  line  of  simplest  inter-communication 
between   the   markets   of   Asia   and   Europe.      Ex- 


26  ORIENT. 

tended  to  the  west  bank  of  the  Indus,  and  connected 
with  the  system  of  rapid  inter-communication  in 
India,  the  Euphrates  Valley  railroad  would  bring 
London  within  seven  days  of  Calcutta,  and  become 
a  crowded  highway  between  Occident  and  Orient. 
Since  the  capture  of  Kars,  Russia  dominates  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Euphrates  ;  but  a  railroad  from  Con- 
stantinople to  India  ought  to  be  constructed  and  pro- 
tected by  international  agreement  between  the  greater 
and  lesser  powers  that  need  it  most.  Americans  are 
naturally  surprised  that  a  road  so  easy  of  construc- 
tion, and  politically  and  commercially  so  important, 
has  not  already  been  built. 

5.  What  is  to  be  said  of  the  proposed  canal  be- 
tween the  Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Sea  through 
the  Valley  of  the  Jordan  ? 

It  were  unpardonable  not  to  notice  the  scheme  for 
a  Jordan  canal,  although  the  enterprise  may  turn  out 
to  be  only  a  dream.  The  Suez  Canal  is  easily  blocked 
in  time  of  war  or  cholera.  Ships  are  not  allowed  to 
move  through  it  at  a  greater  speed  than  that  of  five 
miles  an  hour.  A  second  canal  must  be  opened  be- 
tween the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean.  Eng- 
land, India,  Australia,  and  all  other  commercial  na- 
tions demand  this  increased  facility  of  intercourse.  It 
is  thought  to  be  cheaper  to  cut  a  canal  through  Pales- 
tine by  the  way  of  the  Jordan  Valley  and  the  Dead 
Sea  than  through  the  sands  of  Egypt.  Open  a  canal 
from  the  coast  near  Acre  across  the  Plain  of  Esdrae- 
lon  to  the  Jordan,  and  the  waters  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean would  be  admitted  to  the  Dead  Sea.  The  cut- 
ting would  need  to  be  only  twenty -five  miles  long 


PALESTINE,  EGYPT,  AND  THE   FUTURE   OF  ISLAM.      27 

and  of  no  great  depth.  The  head  of  the  gulf  of 
Akaba  is  separated  from  the  Dead  Sea  by  a  bold 
ridge  and  rocky  upland  not  yet  surveyed.  It  might 
be  difficult,  but  of  course  not  impracticable,  to  cut 
through  these.  Once  beyond  this  barrier,  the  waters 
would  flow  down  the  slope  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the 
Dead  Sea.  The  immense  depression  in  which  the 
latter  lies  would  be  filled.  A  lake  would  be  formed 
extending  to  the  northern  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Gahlee. 
Jericho  and  Tiberias  would  be  covered.  The  waters 
would  rise  on  the  east  of  the  Mount  of  Olives  to 
within  ten  miles  of  Jerusalem.  That  city  would  thus 
become  an  important  sea-port.  It  might  be  made, 
commercially  as  well  as  religiously,  the  joy  of  the 
whole  earth.  I  venture  no  prediction  as  to  the  suc- 
cess of  this  scheme,  but  the  London  journals  dis- 
cuss it  gravely,  and  a  responsible  company  has  been 
formed  with  a  British  lord  at  its  head,  to  carry  out 
the  bold  and  strategic  enterprise. 

6.  Does  England  wish  to  rule  Egypt  ?  Is  the  land 
of  the  Nile,  as  well  as  the  Suez  Canal,  likely  to  fall 
under  the  control  of  the  British  Empire  ? 

There  are  two  Englands.  A  republican  England, 
which  believes  in  government  of  the  people,  for  the 
people,  and  by  the  people  ;  and  an  England  of  the 
privileged  classes,  which  has  very  haughty,  imperial- 
istic ideas  and  precedents.  Republican  England  does 
not  wish  to  annex  Egypt.  Republican  England  is  no 
more  aggressive  than  our  republic  is.  It  is  as  anxious 
to  do  justice  to  every  weak  nation  on  the  borders  of 
the  British  Empire  as  we,  since  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery, are  anxious  to  do  justice  to  our  neighbors.     But 


28  ORIENT. 

imperialistic  England,  sometimes  called  Tory  Eng- 
land, is  yet  a  mighty  force  in  history;  and  its  last  and 
probably  greatest  leader,  Lord  Beaconsfield,  was  ac- 
customed to  say  that  England  is  essentially  an  Asiatic 
power.  That  party  wishes  to  make  England  an 
African  power  as  well  as  an  Asiatic,  and  it  may  yet 
have  opportunity  to  do  so.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  Mr.  Bright  resigned  his  position  in  a  proud 
British  cabinet  because  he  felt  that  the  moral  law 
was  not  observed  in  the  actions  of  England  toward 
Egypt.  Mr.  Gladstone,  replying  to  his  former  col- 
league, said  that  he  and  Mr.  Bright  agreed  perfectly 
as  to  the  general  proposition  that  the  moral  law  ap- 
plies to  the  relations  of  nations  as  well  as  to  those  of 
individuals  ;  but  that  they  differed  as  to  the  applica- 
tion of  that  law  to  the  particular  case  of  Egypt.  The 
Brights  and  Gladstones  and  those  who  follow  them 
will  treat  Egypt,  I  have  no  doubt,  with  perfect  jus- 
tice. I  am  not  assailing  the  party  they  represent ; 
but  the  imperialistic  party  may  come  to  power  in 
Parliament  at  any  time.  It  has  fought  unjust  wars 
in  China  sometimes,  in  India  not  twice  or  thrice  only, 
in  South  Africa  at  least  once,  and  not  infrequently 
in  the  Levant.  That  party  is  exceedingly  anxious 
that  the  whole  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  the  Suez  Canal, 
should  be  under  British  control. 

7.  When  Turkey  is  driven  out  of  Europe,  is  it 
possible  that  the  Mohammedan  Caliphate  may  be 
restored  to  Cairo  or  Mecca  ? 

Nearly  everj^  able  man  that  you  meet  among  the 
Arabs  and  Turks  and  Egyptians  thinks  the  Caliphate 
likely  to   become   Arabic  whenever  the  Turks  lose 


PALESTINE,   EGYPT,    AND   THE   FUTURE   OF   ISLAM.    29 

Constantinople.  At  Jerusalem  I  heard  of  nothing 
so  much  in  the  political  world  as  the  probable  revival 
of  such  a  Caliphate.  There  are  now  only  about 
2,100,000  of  the  Turkish  Mohammedans  in  Europe ; 
but  there  are  175,000,000  Mohammedans  in  the 
world,  and  of  these  only  20,000,000  are  Turks.  What 
if  these  2,100,000  Mussulmans  in  Europe  should  be 
unseated  from  the  saddle  of  Constantinople?  What  if 
the  prestige  of  their  present  position  should  be  lost? 
Do  you  believe  that  the  vast  majority  of  Mohamme- 
dans who  are  Arabs  would  consent  to  be  dominated 
by  20,000,000  Turks,  who  would  have  no  Constino- 
ple  to  give  them  eclat  ?  The  truth  is  that  the  down- 
fall of  Constantinople  as  a  Turkish  capital  would 
very  probably  be  followed  by  an  effort  to  reestablish 
the  Caliphate,  and  to  place  it  either  at  Cairo  or  at 
Mecca ;  at  least  under  Arab  control,  somewhere  in 
the  more  Southern  lands  of  Islam. 

8.  What  ought  to  be  the  attitude  of  England  to- 
ward the  Moslem  world  as  a  whole  ? 

Here  is  a  very  recent  elaborate  English  book  on 
the  future  of  Islam,  written  by  a  gentleman  who 
spent  a  long  time  in  Mecca.  ("  The  Future  of 
Islam,"  by  W.  S.  Blunt.  London,  1882.)  He  en- 
ters into  the  matter  as  a  politician,  and  arranges 
175,000,000  of  the  Moslem  world  in  their  subdivi- 
sions, and  he  makes  out  a  strong  case  to  the  effect 
that  England  ought  to  aid  the  reestablishment  of  the 
Caliphate,  to  put  herself  into  the  position  of  protector 
of  the  Caliphate,  and  thus  draw  under  her  general  po- 
litical influence  the  whole  world  of  Islam.  That  is 
an  imperialistic  idea.    There  would  be  vigorous  oppo- 


30  ORIENT. 

sition  to  it  made  by  republican  England.  Parties  in 
Great  Britain  are  keenly  divided  about  the  English 
Egyptian  policy  ;  but  it  is  a  sign  of  the  times  when 
a  cautious  conservative  like  Joseph  Cowen,  member 
of  Parliament,  goes  to  Newcastle,  and  affirms  in  a 
public  speech  that  England  must  annex  Egypt,  and 
that  her  doing  this  will  be  the  destruction  of  the 
European  Turkish  Empire  and  the  beginning  of  a 
North  African  British  Empire.  Many  a  friend  of 
the  Beaconsfield  foreign  policy  thinks  that  England 
has  as  much  right  to  govern  in  Cairo  as  she  has  to 
rule  in  Calcutta.  (  See  Dicey's  "  Egypt,"  and  G. 
W.  Vyse's  "Egypt.")  Many  a  recent  British  po- 
litical essay  maintains  precisely  this  proposition. 
Egypt  is  the  key  to  the  whole  British  Empire. 
There  is  no  safety  for  England's  interests  in  the 
Suez  Canal,  certain  writers  think,  unless  England 
governs  the  whole  of  Egj^pt.  She  must  govern  the 
canal  or  put  herself  in  danger  of  losing  India.  So 
considerate,  so  tender-hearted,  so  Christian  a  man  as 
David  Livingstone  once  said,  in  Bombay,  with  the 
applause  of  a  great  audience,  that  what  England  has 
done  for  India  she  must  ultimately  do  for  all  Africa. 
Over  the  taffrail  of  many  a  ship  I  have  leaned 
with  British  officers,  naval  and  civil,  who  were 
friends  of  the  imperialistic  policy  in  English  politics, 
and  have  heard  them  say  :  "  We  must  take  Egypt. 
If  we  do  not,  France  will.  We  must  extend  our  do- 
minions up  the  Nile  ;  we  must  push  our  Cape  settle- 
ments north,  through  the  Dutch  colonies  ;  and  who 
knows  but  that  we  shall  ultimately  annex  Liberia  to 
Sierra  Leone  ?  "     Only  the  other  day,  a  British  ship 


PALESTINE,  EGYPT,  AND   THE   FUTUKE  OF   ISLAM.      31 

off  the  coast  of  Liberia  demanded,  in  the  haughty, 
imperialistic  tone  which  republican  England  detests 
as  much  as  you  and  I  do,  the  rectification  of  a  cer- 
tain boundary  according  to  English  ideas.  We  find 
our  American  Stanley  in  conflict  at  the  centre  of 
Africa  at  this  moment  with  French  authorities.  He 
represents  Belgium.  The  great  powers  of  the  world 
have  their  eye  on  Africa,  and  England  means  to  have 
her  usual  share  —  that  is,  the  lion's  half.  It  is  no 
doubt  true,  my  friends,  that  there  is  vehement  op- 
position to  these  ideas  in  England.  Many  a  repub- 
lican English  gentleman  of  Mr.  Bright's  or  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's opinions,  I  have  heard  say  :  "  We  do  not  want 
Egypt.  To  annex  it  to  the  empire  would  bring  us 
into  war  with  the  great  powers  of  Europe.  If  we 
were  to  try  and  keep  it,  we  could  not  manage  it  so 
as  to  make  it  profitable  to  ourselves,  and  the  compli- 
cations it  might  lead  to,  if  we  were  to  take  it,  no  man 
can  foresee.  Under  Gladstone  we  should  never  attack 
Egypt.  We  must  hold  our  place  in  the  Canal  —  the 
world  agrees  that  we  should  have  free  passage  through 
it ;  but  what  do  we  want  of  Egypt  as  a  whole  ?  Per- 
haps we  ought  to  control  one  railway  across  the 
Delta ;  and  by  and  by  there  may  be  a  railway  opened 
down  the  Euphrates  Valley,  giving  us  a  new  road  to 
India."  With  such  a  railway  open  to  her  use,  if  not 
under  her  control,  and  with  another  across  Egypt,  it 
is  very  difficult  to  see  why  England  needs  the  whole 
of  Egypt ;  but  the  imperial  party  has  always  had 
large  wants.  "We  can  govern  Egypt,"  some  Eng- 
lishmen say,  "  better  than  her  own  people  can  ;  there- 
fore we  ought  to   do  it."     Over  and  over  the  im- 


32  ORIENT. 

perialistic  party  has  attacked  weak  nations  in  the 
Orient,  for  no  other  reason  than  to  advance  British 
interests. 

What  is  the  secret  whisper  of  diplomacy  in  Eu- 
rope? " Let  England  have  Egypt;  let  the  Ottoman 
Empire  be  driven  out  of  Europe ;  let  Russia  have  a 
large  part  of  Asia  Minor,  and,  perhaps,  Constantino- 
ple, if  she  will  not  attack  England  when  she  takes 
Egypt ;  let  France  have  Tunis ;  let  Italy  have,  per- 
haps, Tripoli ;  let  Germany  and  Austria  move  down 
the  Danube."  Who  knows  but  that  Austria  and  Ger- 
many may  unite  in  making  annexations  along  the  val- 
ley of  that  river,  when  the  Turks  are  driven  out,  and 
so  be  prevented  from  attacking  England,  if  she  wishes 
to  put  Egypt  in  her  waistcoat  pocket  ?  At  any  rate, 
it  will  be  essential  to  fill  the  mouth  of  the  Northern 
bear  with  a  fat  slice  of  Asia  Minor,  and,  possibly, 
with  that  huge  sweet  morsel,  for  which  the  bear  has 
been  longing  for  so  many  centuries,  a  passage  out  of 
the  Black  Sea  into  the  Mediterranean  and  a  strong 
foothold  in  Constantinople  itself.  Perhaps  these  re- 
arrangements of  the  map  could  be  made  and  no  great 
war  arise. 

Napoleon  used  to  say:  *' Whoever  governs  Egypt 
is  best  qualified  to  govern  both  Europe  and  Asia." 
He  wished  to  deprive  the  British  Empire  of  its  pos- 
sessions in  the  East  and  to  restore  the  ancient  road 
to  India.  He  wrote  to  the  French  Directory :  "  By 
seizing  and  holding  Egypt,  I  grasp  and  command  the 
destinies  of  the  civilized  world."  Napoleon  professed 
the  Mohammedan  faith  when  he  went  into  his  Egyp- 
tian campaign.     There  are  documents,  which  lately 


PALESTINE,  EGYPT,  AND   THE   FUTURE   OF   ISLAM.      33 

have  come  to  light,  showing  that  Napoleon  had  mighty 
schemes  of  Asiatic  dominion,  and  that  this  profession 
of  the  faith  of  Islam  was  intended  to  be  the  com- 
mencement of  the  fulfillment  of  gigantic  projects  as  to 
the  world  of  Islam.  If  he  had  succeeded  in  Egypt  — 
if  British  naval  power  had  brought  no  speedy  end  to 
the  career  of  the  great  Bonaparte  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Nile  —  who  knows  but  that  his  wings  would  have 
spread  ultimately  from  Gibraltar  to  the  foot  of  the 
Himalayas  ?  His  ghost  walks  yet  in  the  shadows  of 
the  Pyramids,  as  well  as  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine. 
There  are  men  advising  England  now  to  follow  the 
old  Napoleonic  ideas.  France  is  too  much  divided 
against  herself  to  carry  out  the  schemes  of  her  great- 
est emperor.  England  has  the  power,  and,  if  she  can 
conciliate  Germany  and  France  and  Italy,  and  most 
especially  Russia,  who  knows  but  that  she  will  yet 
execute  the  mighty  plan  of  the  great  Napoleon  ? 

9.  Will  Mohammedanism  spread  more  rapidly  than 
Christianity  in  Africa  ?  What  influence  will  the  re- 
forms now  in  progress  in  the  Valley  of  the  Congo 
have  on  the  future  of  Islam  ? 

If  the  International  Association  of  the  Congo  suc- 
ceeds in  opening  the  heart  of  Africa  to  Christian  civ- 
ilization, Islam  will  lose  its  chief  recruiting  grounds. 
In  case  the  Free  State  of  the  Congo  becomes  pros- 
perous, Christianity  is  likely  to  make  rapid  advances 
in  the  heart  of  the  Dark  Continent,  and  so  to  close 
the  most  important  field  of  Mohammedan  propagan- 
dism.  The  career  of  Islam  is  likely  to  be  brought  to 
a  pause  in  Africa,  as  it  has  been  in  Europe,  and  must 
soon  be  in  Asia,  by  the  rivalry  of  Christianity. 


34  ORIENT. 

10.  Has  Mohammedanism  self-regenerating  power  ? 
Is  Islam  likely  to  be  reformed  from  within  ? 

The  Wahhabite  reformation  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury resulted  in  the  decapitation  of  its  leader  in  front 
of  St.  Sophia's  at  Constantinople.  The  sect  he 
founded  numbers  now  only  about  8,000,000,  and  is  in 
a  state  of  decline. 

The  political  power  of  Mohammedanism  is  likely 
to  receive  a  severe  shock  from  the  perhaps  not  dis- 
tant dissolution  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  yet  it 
may  endure  for  ages  in  Arabia.  There  is  a  Moham- 
medan University  in  Cairo  in  which  many  thousands 
of  pupils  are  taught  fanatical  devotion  to  Islam. 
The  teachers  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  pillars  in  the  great 
Azhar  Mosque  with  their  scholars  gathered  in  semi- 
circles on  the  marble  pavements  around  them.  This 
theological  school  is  now  practically  independent  of 
Turkish  control.  It  is  the  headquarters  of  Arabian 
theology.  It  has  declared  itself  the  home  of  indepen- 
dent thought  in  Islam.  It  supports  with  vigor  the 
Arabic  and  Egyptian  party  of  reform.  At  the  same 
iime,  it  preserves  moderation  of  tone,  and  favors  no 
schism.  On  the  downfall  of  the  Turkish  Empire, 
this  school  is  likely  to  demand  the  return  of  the  Cal- 
iphate to  Cairo,  and  to  restore  to  the  Arabian  mind 
its  lost  religious  leadership. 

Until  it  gives  up  polygamy  and  the  Koran,  Mo- 
hammedanism carries  fatal  diseases  within  itself,  but 
when  it  gives  up  these  it  will  cease  to  be  Moham- 
medanism. Under  severe  pressure  from  Christian 
governments,  Islam  may  abandon  slavery  and  learn 
to  live  at  peace  with  Christianity ;  but,  left  to  itself, 


PALESTINE,   EGYPT,    AND   THE   FUTURE   OF   ISLAM.    35 

it  is  almost  certain  to  continue  to  make  death  the 
penalty  for  the  abandonment  of  the  Mussulman  faith 
by  any  subject  of  a  Mohammedan  power.  Unless 
polygamy  and  the  Koran  are  abandoned,  the  relig- 
ious and  the  political  power  of  Islam  must  decline 
together.  In  presence  of  the  advances  of  Christian- 
ity, intelligent  Mussulmen  themselves  admit  that  the 
proper  symbol  of  the  present  prospects  of  their  faith 
is  a  waning  crescent. 

"  The  moon  of  Mahomet 
Arose,  and  it  shall  set ; 
While,  blazoned  as  on  Heaven's  immortal  noon. 
The  Cross  leads  generations  on." 


ILLUSTRATIVE   EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS 
AND  JOURNALS. 

Abraham's  Oak,  Hebron,  May  9. 

I  HEAR  the  morning  wind  in  Abraham's  oak,  and 
think  of  that  most  mysterious  historical  process  by 
which  first  one  man,  then  a  family,  then  a  people, 
then  a  church  separated  from  the  world  have  fulfilled 
to  the  letter  prophecies  written  in  the  oldest  books 
known  to  man.  Abraham  began  circumcision  of  the 
flesh  ;  his  family  recognized  only  God  as  their  ruler ; 
Moses  brought  the  descendants  of  the  family  out  of 
Egypt  organized  as  a  church  rather  than  as  a  state, 
himself  claiming  no  headship  ;  the  long  history  of 
the  nation,  until  a  king  was  permitted  to  be  chosen, 
was  that  of  a  theocracy  ;  the  kings  were  contrary  to 
the  fundamental  idea  of  a  society  ruled  only  by  the 
King  of  kings  ;  after  the  captivity  the  Jews  were 
much  more  a  church  than  a  state,  except  in  so  far  as 
Herod,  an  usurper,  and  his  family  broke  in  upon  the 
order  of  the  theocracy ;  Christ  came,  and  an  uni- 
versal church  took  the  place  of  the  chosen  nation, 
was  its  successor  and  expansion,  in  fact ;  and  that 
church  recognizes  as  its  Supreme  Ruler  only  God, 
and  teaches  circumcision  of  the  heart. 

I  care  little  for  difiiculties  in  respect  to  the  method 
of  interpreting   particular  details  in  this  transcend- 


ABE  AH  am' S   OAK.  37 

ently  grand  succession  of  events,  all  pointing  to  one 
end.  It  is  historically  beyond  all  dispute  that  the 
chosen  church  has  succeeded  the  chosen  nation,  as 
that  did  the  chosen  family,  and  that  the  chosen  man. 
God  intends  to  do^what  He  does  do.  History,  there- 
fore, is  not  only  a  record  of  what  God  has  done,  but 
of  what  He  from  eternity  intended  to  do.  Provi- 
dence designs  to  accomplish  whatever  it  does  accom- 
plish. Every  large  and  small  event,  every  cause  and 
consequence  among  events,  because  after  their  occur- 
rence actual,  were  before  their  occurrence  inten- 
tional. You  can  judge,  therefore,  why  I  am  moved 
by  standing  where  the  chosen  man  lived,  and  the 
chosen  family  lie  buried.  It  is  not  that  Abraham 
touched  this  spot,  but  that  God  has  touched  it.  Cir- 
cumcision of  the  flesh,  the  type  of  final  circumcision 
of  the  heart,  began  here  a  course  of  entirely  indis- 
putable events,  which  we  are  certain  that  Providence 
intended  from  the  first  to  bring  to  pass,  because  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  God  intends  to  do  what  He  does  do. 
The  theocracy  begun  here  in  one  man  spread  to  a 
family,  then  to  a  nation,  then  to  a  universal  church  ; 
and  that  kingdom  promises  perpetuity  as  no  other  on 
the  earth  does.  Now,  as  from  the  beginning,  cir- 
cumcision of  the  heart  is  the  condition  of  citizenship 
in  the  theocracy,  the  only  true  government  on  earth 
and  the  only  in  heaven.  This  vast  historic  process 
is  what  moves  me  here  ;  and,  as  the  oak  sounds,  ages 
seem  to  pass  through  its  boughs,  and  the  giant 
branches  to  stretch  their  arms,  like  God's  plan,  east, 
west,  north,  south,  above  all  nations  and  times,  not 
excepting  yours  and  mine.  I  seal  up  here  with  this 
letter  a  leaf  from  the  oak. 


S8  ORIENT. 

Bank  of  the  Jordan,  Morning,  May  6. 
Moses  on  Mount  Nebo  yonder,  at  that  death  of  his 
which  was  the  beginning  of  centuries  of  an  historic 
life  not  ended  yet ;  the  weary  exiles  from  Egypt 
passing  across  this  river  in  a  grant  multitude  after 
forty  years'  wanderings ;  Elisha  and  Elijah  and  the 
chariots  of  fire;  the  baptism  here  of  Him  who  has 
now  for  eighteen  hundred  years  governed  the  best 
portion  of  the  world,  —  such  is  the  spiritual  land- 
scape, as  I  sit  here  among  the  willows,  tamarisks,  and 
oleanders  at  the  very  edge  of  the  swift,  murmurous, 
flashing  Jordan.  You  see  this  historical  outlook, 
however,  from  across  the  Atlantic  as  well  as  I ;  let 
me,  therefore,  describe  only  the  physical  scene,  al- 
though this  is  far  less  impressive  than  the  invisible 
spiritual  scene.  The  Plain  of  Jericho  is  only  about 
ten  miles  broad,  and  is  very  desolate,  except  at  its 
centre  along  the  west  side,  where  three  or  four  small 
streams  burst  from  unquenchable  fountains.  Coming 
this  morning  from  Jericho  to  the  Jordan,  the  road- 
side was  almost  treeless  and  verdureless  through  the 
two  miles  nearest  the  river,  except  only  the  last  two 
or  three  hundred  yards,  where  a  tangled  mass  of  rich 
vegetation  makes  a  scene  almost  like  a  park  in  Eng- 
land or  America.  The  water  lies  low,  and  is  not  vis- 
ible until  you  are  just  at  its  edge.  It  is  brown,  but 
not  muddy  ;  it  resembles  the  water  of  the  Nile  more 
than  that  of  the  Tiber.  I  bathed  at  the  point  where 
the  Greek  pilgrims  annually  immerse  themselves  in 
the  river.  I  walked  in  a  strong  current  on  the  st^ny 
bottom  completely  across  the  one  hundred  and  fifty 
or  two  hundred  feet  breadth  of  the  sacred  stream, 
and  plucked  some  foliage  of  which  I  inclose  a  part. 


THE  DEAD   SEA.  39 

Shore  of  the  Dead  Sea,  Noon,  May  6. 
I  write  to  you  now  on  the  shore  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
1,292  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  3,800  feet  below  Jerusalem,  and  yet  the  heat  on 
this  6th  of  May,  with  a  south  wind  blowing,  is  hardly 
greater  here  on  the  edge  of  the  lowest  sheet  of  water 
in  the  world  than  it  is  often  in  the  New  England 
June.  This  is  my  exceedingly  good  fortune  on  this 
journey ;  for  usually,  even  in  early  spring,  the  air 
here  is  like  the  blast  of  a  furnace.  Comprehensible 
enough,  however,  even  to-day,  as  I  look  at  the  dim 
haze  of  evaporation  shutting  off  the  view  southward 
at  a  distance  of  some  ten  or  twelve  miles,  is  the  fact 
that  the  Jordan  is  lost  here.  The  river  is  simply 
drawn  up  into  the  thirsty  air.  The  Dead  Sea  bowl 
has  its  outlet  into  the  winds  and  the  clouds.  The 
mouths  of  these  gape  wide  coming  fiercely  heated  now 
from  Arabian,  now  from  African,  now  from  Syrian, 
now  from  Persian  deserts.  In  some  terrible  moment  of 
geologic  history,  the  crust  of  the  earth  seems  to  have 
broken  here  all  the  way  from  beyond  the  south  end 
of  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  upper  sources  of  the  Jordan. 
The  eastern  part  stood  firm  and  makes  now  the  wall 
of  the  Moab  mountains  ;  the  western  sank  to  a  slope 
and  forms  the  descent  from  the  ridge  of  Palestine  to 
the  Dead  Sea.  All  the  south  end  of  this  mysterious 
lake,  however,  is  very  shallow,  while  the  rest  is  very 
deep ;  and  my  theory  is  that  an  earthquake  and  vol- 
canic agency  burned  and  submerged  the  formerly 
fruitful  region  at  that  south  end  where  stood  the  lep- 
rous cities  of  the  plain. 

Falling  on  my  face  with  arms  folded  in  this  water, 


40  ORIENT. 

I  float  like  so  much  wood  in  common  water.  Lying 
on  my  back  with  bands  on  my  hips,  I  could  sleep  in 
the  centre  of  the  lake !  In  a  bath  here  I  have 
tried  every  position,  and  never  knew  a  hammock  so 
restful  as  these  waves.  The  beach  is  pebbly ;  the 
water  clear :  the  shores  silent,  rocky,  almost  verdure- 
less,  except  for  tufts  of  stunted  shrubs  at  two  places. 
I  shall  mail  this  letter  at  Jerusalem,  but  it  is  signed 
and  sealed  here,  and  made  dry  by  sand  from  this 
sounding  shore. 

Nazareth,  May  16. 

Yesterday  at  sunset,  after  a  ride  past  the  moun- 
tains of  Gilboa  and  through  Jezreel,  Nain,  and  Endor, 
I  came  to  the  green,  solemn,  quiet,  narrow  valley 
among  the  gnarled  hills  from  which  Nazareth  looks 
on  the  wide  Plain  of  Esdraelon.  At  this  moment  I 
am  writing  at  the  top  of  the  hill  behind  the  town,  on 
its  northwest  side,  at  a  point  where  a  portion  of  the 
ancient  city  must  have  stood,  and  which,  by  the  com- 
mon confession  of  travelers,  commands  positively  the 
richest  and  most  extensive  prospect  to  be  obtained  at 
any  one  place  in  all  Palestine. 

On  every  side  the  view  is  wonderful :  snowy,  gigan- 
tic Hermon,  9,376  feet  high  in  the  distance  on  the 
northeast;  the  rounded,  thinly  wooded,  breez}'^  sum- 
mit of  Tabor  on  the  east ;  the  brown,  blue,  and  purple 
wall  of  the  Moab  mountains  next ;  then  the  great 
rent  in  which  lie  the  lower  Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea, 
plainly  enough  lower  than  the  Mediterranean,  and  so 
low  as  to  be  both  of  them  invisible  from  here,  though 
the  depression  seems  on  that  account  none  the  less 
mysterious ;    southeast,  the  brown,   rocky  slopes  of 


NAZARETH.  41 

Little  Hermon  and  of  the  mountains  of  Gilboa,  with 
the  most  important  battle-fields  of  Palestine  between 
them;  then  south  and  southwest,  the  twelve  miles' 
wide  expanse  of  the  green,  yellow,  and  brown  Plain 
of  Esdraelon ;  beyond  it  on  the  southwest  the  eigh- 
teen miles  long  and  partially  wooded  low  ridge  of  Mt. 
Carmel,  terminating  in  the  sea;  lastly,  blue,  shore- 
less toward  the  west,  far-flashing,  through  two  bold, 
wide  stretches,  one  south  and  one  north  of  Mt.  Car- 
mel, the  Mediterranean  itself. 

Hermon,  Esdraelon,  and  the  Mediterranean  are  the 
commanding  objects  here. 

But  the  filling  up  of  the  great  outlines  is  soft  with 
thick  wild  thyme  on  the  hills,  the  deep  green  of  the 
fig-trees  and  the  silver-grayish  green  of  the  olives  in 
the  valleys,  rustling  yellow  and  green  wheat  fields 
on  the  hill  slopes,  in  fat  narrow  glens,  and  on  the 
one  great  plain. 

Think  of  Esdraelon  as  of  the  shape  of  a  barbed 
spear  head  or  Indian's  arrow.  Its  general  form  is  tri- 
angular :  its  point  near  the  Mediterranean,  its  broad 
end  toward  the  Jordan.  But  three  lesser  plains  run 
from  the  broad  end  completely  to  the  Jordan  Valley, 
or  nearly  to  it ;  and  these  I  call  the  Jennin  barb,  the 
Jezreel  stem,  and  the  Mt.  Tabor  barb  of  the  spear 
head.  In  the  Jezreel  stem,  between  Mt.  Gilboa  on 
the  south  and  Little  Hermon  on  the  north,  a  space 
about  two  miles  wide,  all  the  great  battles  of  the 
Plain  of  Esdraelon  have  been  fought.  There  King 
Saul  was  ruined ;  there  Gideon  overthrew  the  Midi- 
anites ;  there  Sisera  was  defeated  ;  near  there  Napo- 
leon, with  5,000  men,  successfully  resisted  30,000  in 


42  ORIENT. 

a  conflict  lasting  seven  hours.  Mt.  Carmel  forms 
the  southwestern  side  of  the  main  portion  of  the  ar- 
row head ;  and  over  against  it,  these  Nazareth  moun- 
tains constitute  the  northwestern  side.  Opposite  the 
widest  portion  of  the  plain,  and  looking  down  from  a 
height  of  1,637  feet  above  the  sea,  this  hill  of  Naza- 
reth, where  I  write,  has  incomparably  the  most  glo- 
rious and  educating  points  of  view  to  be  found  in 
Palestine  for  that  youth  and  that  early  manhood 
which  were  certainly  passed  here,  and  which  have 
governed  now  for  eighteen  centuries  the  deepest  edu- 
cation of  the  world. 

It  was  fit  that  He  should  look  on  this  great  and 
wide  sea  whose  kingdom  was  to  be  chiefly  beyond 
that  shoreless  horizon  of  the  west.  It  was  appro- 
priate that  the  sublimity  of  Hermon  should  be  gazed 
upon  from  here  by  Him  whose  reign  is  to  be  more 
lasting  than  the  mountains  that  cannot  be  moved.  I 
am  amazed  as  I  look  north,  south,  east,  and  west  at 
the  natural  and  historical  grandeur,  comprehensive- 
;ness,  and  beauty  of  every  part  of  the  view.  I  think 
whose  feet  trod  these  hills  of  wild  thyme  and  I  am 
silent. 

Nazareth,  May  20. 

It  draws  toward  sunset  as  I  pause  here  at  the 
edge  of  a  rustling  grove  of  olive-trees  in  the  centre 
of  the  green,  quiet,  solemn  valley  from  which  Naz- 
areth and  its  chief  hill  look  on  Esdraelon,  Tabor, 
Carmel,  the  Mediterranean,  and  Great  Hermon.  In 
all  Palestine  there  is,  it  is  said,  no  more  rich  and  ex- 
tensive prospect  than  that  I  have  just  named,  seen 
from  the  hill  on  the  north  of  Nazareth,  and  certainly 


OUTLOOK  FROM  NAZARETH.  43 

the  other  views  I  have  myself  had  are  each  inferior 
to  that.  During  the  youth  and  early  manhood  of 
the  life  that  has  changed  the  course  of  the  ages,  He, 
who  was  chief  among  ten  thousand,  must  have  often 
looked  here  upon  the  wide,  far-flashing  sea,  beyond 
which,  in  Gentile  nations,  his  kingdom  was  to  have 
during  eighteen  centuries  its  chief  seats  ;  and  upon 
snowy  gigantic  Hermon,  itself  not  to  be  as  enduring 
as  that  kingdom.  I  am  astonished  that  in  reading 
much  of  Nazareth  I  never  understood  how  incom- 
parably grand  this  prospect  north,  south,  east,  and 
west  is  from  the  hill,  on  the  slope  of  which  Nazareth 
was  and  is  built,  its  highest  houses  not  looking  on 
the  wonderful  view,  but  themselves  within  a  bow- 
shot now  of  the  points  that  command  the  outlook, 
and  anciently  perhaps  yet  nearer.  I  am  impatient 
when  I  hear  this  little  valley,  a  mile  long  and  half  a 
mile  wide,  the  town  on  its  northwestern  side,  spoken 
of  as  secluded.  It  is  secluded  only  as  an  eagle's  nest 
is  at  the  summit  of  far-looking  mountains.  It  stands 
on  the  heights  of  the  ranges  extending  from  Mt. 
Tabor  to  near  the  sea,  on  the  north  side  of  the  great 
Plain  of  Esdraelon.  If  a  swallow's  nest  beneath  the 
*eaves  of  a  palace  is  secluded,  then  is  Nazareth  so, 
for  it  is  built  at  the  edge  of  the  colossal  roof  of  the 
palace  of  Palestine.  It  may  be  secluded  from  the 
population,  but  not  from  the  natural  scenery,  and  es- 
pecially not  from  the  historic  sites  of  the  oldest  his- 
tory of  the  Holy  Land.  This  is  a  shallow  valley  at 
the  summit  and  on  the  edge  of  a  range  of  mountains, 
and  Nazareth  is  thus  a  mountain  city. 

The  sun  has  set,  and  with  it  the  Mediterranean 


44  ORIENT. 

wind,  which  makes  the  heat  here  very  endurable  by- 
day,  goes  down  in  force  a  little ;  at  midnight  it  will 
be  cool  and  still.  In  the  twenty  acres  of  square,  flat- 
roofed  stone  houses  which  make  up  the  modern  Naz- 
areth, the  great  Franciscan  church  and  convent,  and 
a  new  Protestant  church,  are  the  most  conspicuous 
buildings.  There  on  the  hill-slope  are  perhaps  5,000 
people,  more  than  half  Christian,  an  exception  to  the 
rule  in  this  or  any  part  of  Palestine,  as  the  town 
itself  is  anomalous  in  its  superior  neatness  and  or- 
der. A  few  minutes  before  I  began  this  letter,  I 
met  in  a  path  of  the  copse  of  cactus  yonder  a  mis- 
sionary lady,  plainly  Protestant,  not  yet  thirty  years 
of  age,  her  face  radiant,  and  possibly  twenty  girl- 
pupils,  many  of  them  with  interesting  faces,  troop- 
ing along  with  her  on  a  sunset  walk.  Wheat  rustles 
near  me  ;  sheaves  are  piled  not  far  off  ;  yonder  three 
camels  are  at  this  moment  being  made  to  kneel  down 
to  be  disburdened  of  their  heavy  loads  of  bundles 
from  the  yellow  harvest.  Sheep  led  by  shepherds 
are  being  called  home  from  the  hills  to  the  entrance 
to  the  town.  As  I  seal  up  these  flowers  and  leaves 
in  this  letter  they  have  on  them  a  slight  evening 
dew. 

^  Sea  of  Galilee,  May  19. 

The  evidences  of  Christianity  appear  to  me  more 
powerful  than  ever,  as  I  sit  here  on  the  shore  of  the 
Sea  of  Galilee,  in  sight  of  the  elevation  where  prob- 
ably the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  pronounced,  and 
of  the  spots  where  the  cities  stood  whose  destruction 
was  predicted,  and  which  have  disappeared  so  com- 
pletely that  scholarship   to-day  is   at  no  agreement 


SEA   OF   GALILEE.  45 

with  itself  as  to  their  special  localities.  The  charac- 
ter exhibited  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  appears  to 
me  here,  even  more  vividly  than  ever  before,  a  perfect 
guaranty  of  the  honesty  and  good  judgment  of  Him 
vrho  delivered  it.  Daniel  Webster  said  on  his  death- 
bed, and  caused  to  be  written  on  his  tombstone,  that 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  cannot  be  a  merely  human 
production.  But  the  honesty  and  good  judgment  of 
which  there  is  such  proof,  made  the  claim  of  miracu- 
lous power.'  Here  were  the  cities  which  saw  the 
mighty  works  upon  which  He  who  delivered  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  laid  such  emphasis  that  He  de- 
nounced in  terms  the  most  fearful  those  who  were  not 
convinced  by  these  deeds.  In  the  honesty  and  good 
judgment  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  I  find  a  guar- 
anty for  the  honesty  and  intelligence  of  the  claim  as 
to  miraculous  power.  This  basin  of  the  Sea  of  Gal- 
ilee, moreover,  in  the  opening  of  the  first  century, 
was  not  a  spot  in  which  things  could  be  done  in  a  cor- 
ner. Crowded  places  of  trade,  Roman  palaces,  Jew- 
ish synagogues  and  villages,  flocks  of  boats,  and  every- 
where, except  along  the  southeast  shore,  a  murmur  of 
men  as  constant  as  that  of  the  waves,  made  the  local- 
ity a  metropolis.  Because  it  was  such,  it  was  chosen 
by  our  Saviour  as  the  chief  scene  of  his  teachings. 
Yet  here  those  mysterious  claims  were  put  forth  in 
the  face  of  noon  and  with  success,  and  side  by  side 
with  the  Parables  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

I  have  been  here  three  nights  and  two  days,  one  of 
them  a  Sabbath,  and  shall  carry  away  with  me  vivid 
memories  of  almost  every  nook  of  the  lake,  and  of  all 
that  is  known  as  to  the  now  obscure   special  sites, 


46  ORIENT. 

the  indeterminateness  of  which  troubles  me  little, 
as  the  general  scene  is  yet  what  it  always  was.  The 
Sea  of  Galilee  is  pear-shaped.  Lying  six  hundred 
feet  below  the  Mediterranean,  its  shores  have  in 
places  a  tropical  vegetation,  contrasting  strangely 
with  the  almost  totally  verdureless  upper  portions  of 
the  cliffs.  As  the  breadth  of  the  lake  is  from  six  to 
seven  miles,  and  its  length  twelve  and  one  half,  our 
Saviour  in  crossing  the  sea  to  find  retirement  for  de- 
votion was  accustomed  to  go  at  least  fi¥e  miles  for 
that  purpose. 

Damascus,  May  28. 

Contrasts  of  life  and  death  fill  all  the  scenery  of 
the  East ;  but  nowhere,  not  even  from  the  summit  of 
the  Pyramids,  nor  in  the  Jordan  Valley,  have  I  seen 
the  two  set  in  more  magnificent  antithesis  to  each 
other  than  in  this  Plain  of  Damascus,  on  which  I  look 
as  I  write.  Rainless  for  half  the  year,  the  level  tract 
would  be  only  a  desert  of  drifting  sand  except  for 
the  river  Barada,  which  here  bursts  out  upon  the 
thirsty  acres,  and  fills  a  space  fifteen  miles  long  by 
seven  wide  with  almost  tropical  growths  of  olives, 
figs,  oranges,  apricots,  pomegranates,  walnuts,  lemons, 
quinces,  peaches,  mulberries,  plums,  pears,  hazel-nuts, 
apples,  cocoanuts,  and  a  long  Hst  of  other  fruits. 

In  the  centre  of  this  green,  heavil}^- wooded  region 
lies  Damascus,  all  its  wealth  due  to  the  mountain 
river.  Bomb  never  burst  with  death  more  effectu- 
ally than  the  Anti-Lebanon  stream  here  bursts  with 
life.  Seven  canals  divide  the  waters  ;  and  in  the 
plain  every  drop  is  under  strictly  legal  protection. 
But  north,  south,  east,  and  west  of  the  space  reached 


DAMASCUS.  47 

by  the  moisture,  all  is  brown  and  barren  as  Sahara 
itself.  Death  sets  in  at  full  tide  at  the  edge  of  life  at 
full  tide.  The  mountains,  except  along  the  narrow 
gorges  of  streams,  are  absolutely  verdureless  lime- 
stone, rusty  in  places  with  gravel.  No  wonder  that 
Mahomet,  born  in  a  thirsty  land,  should  have  been 
reported  to  have  said,  as  he  stood  here ;  "  Man  can 
have  but  one  Paradise :  mine  is  above  ;  I  will  not 
enter  this  city."  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  the  his- 
torian, at  whose  grave  near  Damascus  I  stood  this 
morning,  and  who  died  here  in  his  fortieth  year, 
lamenting  in  his  last  words  that  his  life's  work  was 
but  just  begun,  said  when  he  stood  on  this  height : 
"  This  indeed  repays  me  for  all  the  toil  and  trouble  I 
have  had  in  coming  here." 

It  is  near  sunset,  and  all  the  billowy  green  of  the 
vegetation  of  the  plain  shows  admirably  in  the  slant 
javelins  of  radiance  poured  over  the  height  of  Kubbet 
Seijar.  Here,  looking  on  the  farthest  hills  visible 
toward  the  Euphrates,  it  is  not  difficult  to  pass  in 
imagination  to  that  river ;  thence  to  the  far,  gigantic, 
snowy,  and  ice-bound  tops  of  the  Himalayas ;  then 
down  the  slope  of  China,  then  across  the  Japan 
mountains,  then  above  the  Pacific  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  thence  to  the  Rocky  Mountain  Range,  the 
Mississippi,  the  Great  Lakes,  the  Adirondacks,  and 
Boston.  In  America,  my  own,  everything  seems 
strangely  near  as  I  look  not  west,  but  east,  and  re- 
member that  when  one  passes  far  enough  east  one 
comes  out  at  the  west.  All  other  history  connected 
with  this  view  of  Damascus  fades  into  insignificance 
compared  with  the  one  fact  that  at  a  place  somewhere 


48  ORIENT. 

yonder,   but   now  lost  to   memory,  Paul  began  the 
career  that  brought  a  new  life  to  Europe. 

Ruins  of  Baalbec,  May  29. 
The  colossal  ruins  at  Baalbec,  now  that  I  stand 
among  them,  impress  me  chiefly  as  a  symbol  of  the 
deserved  fate  of  a  cruel  and  polluted  paganism,  and 
of  the  building  of  a  true  religion  upon  a  false.  Here 
are  substructures  with  stones  sixty-three  and  sixty- 
four  feet  long  and  thirteen  high  :  probably  they  are 
Phoenician.  Above  these  lie  the  ruins  of  two  tem- 
ples, a  lesser,  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  long ;  a 
greater,  one  thousand  feet :  from  famous  inscriptions 
which  I  have  just  been  studying,  it  is  known  that 
the  temples  are  Roman,  of  the  age  of  Antoninus  Pius, 
whose  name  is  chiseled  here.  Last  and  upon  all 
other  earlier  structures  stood  a  massive  Christian 
church  or  basilica,  itself  now  destroyed,  though  the 
creed  it  honored  governs  the  most  enlightened  parts 
of  the  world.  Thus  this  accumulation  of  acres  of 
broken  pillars,  capitals,  friezes,  pediments,  arches, 
gmd  platforms,  exhibits  in  the  dates  and  succession  of 
its  parts  the  order  it  has  pleased  Providence  to  follow 
in  the  religious  history  of  mankind.  I  know  not 
that  something  of  the  magnificence  of  these  six  great 
columns  yet  remaining  erect  out  of  the  larger  temple 
is  not  fitly  enough  transferred  to  the  best  temple  of 
the  true  religious  creed.  There  was  a  noble  side 
even  to  the  false  religions,  and  that  can  be  found 
here  ;  but  the  infamies  and  abominations  that  these 
stones  have  witnessed  make  the  ruddy  sunset  glow 
now  falling  upon  them  seem  a  not  unnatural  blush. 


BAALBEC.  49 

The  world  sees  no  longer  the  most  civilized  and  pow- 
erful of  its  nations  making  it  a  part  of  religious  wor- 
ship to  give  up  wives  and  daughters  to  Baal.  In  this 
very  temple,  Roman,  Greek,  and  Phoenician  united  in 
doing  that  age  after  age.  I  remember  the  actor  who 
was  killed  here  for  becoming  a  Christian  ;  and  also 
the  death  of  Cyril  in  Constantine's  time.  The  men 
who  reared  these  pillars  could  not  be  satisfied,  after 
they  had  murdered  Cyril,  until  they  had  tasted  his 
liver. 

I  stand  by  the  side  of  fragments  of  columns  to  the 
top  of  which,  as  they  lie  prostrate,  I  cannot  reach. 
Three  men  joining  hands  could  not  encircle  a  pillar 
of  the  large,  and  hardly  one  of  the  nineteen  stand- 
ing in  the  small,  temple.  Up  and  up,  seventy  feet, 
stately  stones  are  shot  in  smooth  shafts,  and  then 
crowned  with  a  frieze  fourteen  feet  high.  More  mas- 
sive than  those  of  Greece,  the  columns  here  are  yet 
of  great  apparent  lightness  as  seen  from  afar  ;  they 
have  the  solidity  of  Egyptian  and  the  grace  of  Athe- 
nian architecture  combined.  Many  critics  think  them 
finer  than  anything  else  of  the  kind  in  all  Western 
Asia,  in  Africa,  or  in  Europe. 

On  one  of  the  delicately  sculptured  niches  I  found 
a  dragon  and  a  snake  represented  well.  These  rep- 
tiles hiss  no  longer  here  in  the  name  of  Rome,  of 
Greece,  and  of  Heaven  itself.  Baalbec  is  a  ruin : 
God  be  thanked  ;  a  ruin  ! 
4 


n. 

ADVANCED  THOUGHT  IN  INDIA. 

WITH  A  PRELUDE  ON 

REVIVALS,  TRUE  AND  FALSE. 

THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND   FIFTY-EIGHTH  LECTURE  IN  THE 

BOSTON    MONDAY    LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED    IN 

TBEMONT    TEMPLE,   FEBRUARY  26,  1883. 


"  We  believe  that,  in  his  adorable  wisdom,  our  moral  Ruler  has  at- 
tached an  inestimable  importance  to  our  life  on  earth ;  that  all  men 
who  in  this  life  repent  of  sin  will,  at  their  death,  enter  on  a  course  of 
perfect  and  unending  holiness ;  that  all  who  throughout  the  present 
life  remain  impenitent  sinners  will  remain  so  forever;  that  both  the 
just  and  the  unjust  will  be  raised  from  death  at  the  last  day,  will  stand 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  and  will  receive  from  Him  their 
awards  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body ;  so  that  the  wicked 
will  go  away  into  endless  punishment,  but  the  righteous  into  endless 
life."— r^e  Worcester  Creed,  1885. 

"  America  has  received  the  true  religion  of  the  old  continent ;  the 
church  of  ancient  times  has  been  there,  and  Christ  is  from  thence ; 
but,  that  there  may  be  an  equality,  and,  inasmuch  as  that  continent 
has  crucified  Christ,  they  shall  not  have  the  honor  of  communicating 
religion  in  its  most  glorious  state  to  us,  but  we  to  them."  —  Jona- 
than Edwards  :  Revival  of  Religion  in  New  England. 


Outside  of  Indus,  inside  Ganges,  lies 

A  wide-spread  country  famed  enough  of  yore ; 

Northward  the  peaks  of  caved  Emddus  rise. 

And  southward  Ocean  doth  confine  the  shore : 

She  bears  the  yoke  of  various  sovranties 

And  various  eke  her  creeds.     While  these  adore 

Vicious  Mafdma,  those  to  stock  and  stone 

Bow  down,  and  eke  to  brutes  among  them  grown. 

Camoens. 

"  Wherever  there  is  intelligence,  in  all  stages  of  life,  there  dwells 
Christ,  if  Christ  is  the  Logos.  I  plead  for  the  eternal  logos  of  the 
Fathers  —  a  more  universal  Christ,  —  and  I  challenge  the  world's  as- 
sent. This  is  the  Christ  who  was  in  Greece  and  Rome,  in  Egypt  and 
India.  In  the  bards  and  poets  of  the  Rig  Veda  was  He.  He  dwelt 
in  Confucius  and  in  Sakya  Muni." —  Keshub  Chdnder  Sen. 


PRELUDE  11. 

EEVIVALS,  TEUE  AND  FALSE. 

Spieitual  efficiency  is  the  measure  of  the  worth  of 
all  creeds,  sects,  and  churches.  Efficiency  in  what  ? 
In  delivering  men  from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt 
of  it.  We  know  beyond  a  peradventure  that  without 
this  double  deliverance  there  can  be  no  peace  under 
the  moral  law  which  conscience  reveals,  and  which 
ethical  science  itself  proclaims,  and  which  all  the 
pages  of  revelation  flame  with,  like  so  many  Sinais. 
Lessing  said  that  the  ultimate  test  of  the  worth  of 
sects  would  be  found  in  their  ability  to  produce  new 
men,  religious  lives,  spiritually  regenerate  popula- 
tions. This  is  nothing  but  the  yet  unfathomed  say- 
ing of  the  Scriptures :  *'  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them,"  —  that  is,  creeds,  theologies,  sects,  churches, 
ages.  This  is  the  scientific  test,  this  is  the  biblical 
test,  and  to  this  crucial  standard  of  judgment  we  must 
bring  unflinchingly  our  luxurious  churches,  liberalis- 
tic  literature,  and  siren  pulpits. 

American  theology  has  been  full  of  faults,  which  it 
becomes  us  to  remember  with  humiliation  of  spirit ; 
but  it  has  attained,  also,  by  the  favor  of  Providence, 
a  few  peculiar  excellences,  which  it  becomes  us  to 
recognize  with  gratitude  as  Divine  gifts.  These 
have  sprung,  no  doubt,  in  part  from  the  necessities  of 


54  ORIENT. 

our  condition  and  in  part  from  the  traits  of  American 
character.  We  are  regarded  as  a  practical  nation, 
and  I  am  willing  to  maintain  the  proposition  that  our 
theology  is  richer  than  any  other  on  earth  on  the 
practical  side.  As  a  means  of  producing,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  Heaven,  new  lives  in  large  populations,  I  had 
rather  have  scholarly  and  aggressive  American  theol- 
ogy of  the  New  England  new-school  type,  or  of  the 
Presbyterian  type,  or  of  the  Baptist,  Methodist,  or 
Episcopalian,  than  average  German,  Anglican,  or  even 
Scottish  theology.  Since  the  days  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards and  George  Whitefield  and  John  Wesley,  no 
church  on  earth  has  been  more  distinguished  than  the 
American  for  revivals,  unless  it  be  the  Scottish,  in 
the  time  of  the  covenanting  contest,  or  possibly  the 
German,  in  a  few  of  its  most  heroic  years.  In  a  wide 
outlook  over  the  eifect  of  presentations  of  religious 
truth  to  large  populations,  American  theology,  re- 
garded as  a  summary  of  the  points  in  which  our 
evangelical  bodies  agree,  and  judged  mercilessly  by 
its  fruits,  need  not  as  yet  blush  at  its  comparative 
record. 

Professor  Christlieb,  of  Bonn,  is  now  earnestly  en- 
deavoring to  introduce  into  Germany  several  of  the 
methods  of  the  free  churches  in  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  as  a  means  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
torpor,  the  barrenness,  the  iciness  of  much  of  the  life 
of  the  state  churches  in  the  Fatherland.  While  a 
few  people  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  seem  anxious 
to  transplant  from  Germany  the  ideas  that  have  pro- 
duced torpor  there  and  are  at  the  bottom  of  a  large 
part  of  the  spiritual  ineffectiveness  of  the  European 


REVIVALS,  TRUE  AND  FALSE.  65 

state  churches,  the  most  evangelical  of  the  German 
professors  are  endeavoring  to  transplant  into  Ger- 
many the  incisive,  practical  ideas  and  methods  of  ag- 
gressive evangelical  Christianity  as  they  have  been 
developed  m  Scotland  and  England,  and  especially 
under  the  free-church  system  of  the  United  States. 
Would  to  God  there  were  a  thousand  Edwardses,  a 
thousand  Whitefields,  a  thousand  Wesleys,  a  thou- 
sand Lyman  Beechers,  a  thousand  Finneys,  a  thou- 
sand Moodys  on  the  globe,  and  that  ten  of  each  of 
these  classes  could  go  around  the  world  as  evangelists 
every  ten  years !     [Applause.] 

The  churches  of  different  nations  are  rapidly  ac- 
quiring a  better  knowledge  of  each  other.  National 
deficiencies  ought  to  be  supplemented  by  international 
imitations.  The  learning  of  the  German  universities 
is  superior  to  ours.  In  a  great  variety  of  particulars 
we  are  behind  Germany  in  matters  of  theoretical  and 
scientific  import ;  but  we  are  in  advance  of  Germany 
in  the  practical  matters  of  church  life.  We  are  in 
advance  of  England  as  a  whole ;  we  are  ahead  of 
every  nation  on  earth  in  this  matter,  probably,  unless 
it  be  Scotland,  and  are  likely  soon  to  be  in  advance 
of  Scotland  herself.  Filling  up  our  deficiencies  by 
the  study  of  those  traits  which  supplement  our  own, 
let  us  be  careful  not  to  underrate  the  special  gifts 
which  God  has  poured  out  upon  American  Christian- 
ity ;  let  us  reverence  the  practical  side  of  aggressive, 
evangelical.  Christian  work  ;  let  us  see  to  it  we  do 
not  lose  the  traits  which  the  rest  of  the  world  needs. 
We  seem  to  be  singled  out  by  Providence  for  the 
defense  of  those  aggressive  methods  by  which  free 


66  ORIENT. 

churches  can  become  strong  in  free  states,  and  by 
which  alone  republics  can  be  made  safe.  Nothing, 
according  to  my  judgment,  is  more  needed  to-day  in 
German  church  life,  or  in  the  average  Anglican,  or 
in  that  portion  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  that  is  yet 
an  establishment,  or  by  Protestanism  on  the  Conti- 
nent of  Europe  at  large,  than  an  imitation  of  Ameri- 
can, evangelical,  aggressive  methods.  This  may  look 
like  professional  or  personal  bias  ;  but  I  am  not  an 
evangelist,  I  am  not  a  preacher.  I  am  simply  a  stu- 
dent of  the  signs  of  the  times,  a  lecturer,  a  friend  of 
the  church.  The  American  methods  of  revival  work 
in  its  best  form,  experience  has  shown  to  be  superior 
to  any  which  have  been  developed  on  foreign  shores. 
We  need  not  go  abroad  for  instruction  in  the  practi- 
cal matters  of  Christian  aggressiveness. 

What  will  be  the  leading  characteristics  of  the 
church  for  the  times,  if  we  are  to  take  American  ex- 
perience as  indicating  the  probable  lines  of  develop- 
ment in  Christian  aggressiveness  in  free  churches  in 
ages  to  come  ? 

,  1.  The  church  for  the  times  will  reach  the  whole 
population. 

John  Wesley  said  once  :  "  Beware  how  you  invite 
rich  men  into  your  churches  until  you  are  sure  they  are 
Christian.  Beware  how  you  manage  your  churches 
in  such  a  way  that  rich  men  will  become  a  neces- 
sity to  you.  If  your  church  buildings  are  so  luxuri- 
ous that  you  need  an  enormous  income,  wealthy  men 
will  be  necessary  to  you,  and  they  will  rule  you,  and 
then  you  must  soon  bid  farewell  to  Methodist  disci- 
pline, and,  perhaps,  to  Methodist  doctrine."    A  wiser 


REVIVALS,   TRUE   AND   FALSE.  67 

thing  was  never  said ;  a  more  unpopular  thing,  per- 
haps, could  hardly  be  repeated  at  this  hour.  As  I 
am  not  a  pastor  or  preacher,  and  as  no  one  can  sup- 
pose that  I  am  making  oblique  personal  references 
here,  I  venture  to  say  that,  even  in  republican  Amer- 
ica, and  especially  in  the  wealthy  and  fashionable 
society  of  cities,  there  are  more  than  a  few  luxu- 
rious churches  that  do  not  want  poor  men  as  mem- 
bers. When  a  revival  occurs,  the  question  con- 
cerning many  converts  is,  not  "  Are  they  soundly 
Christian?"  but  "How  much  are  they  worth?" 
[Laughter.]  "  What  is  their  social  standing  ? " 
"  Am  I  willing  to  have  one  of  these  converts  next  me 
in  a  pew  ?  "  "  Are  they  likely  to  add  anything  im- 
portant to  the  financial  or  social  strength  of  our  soci- 
ety ?  "  Under  the  voluntary  system,  we  must  have 
money  and  must  draw  rich  men  into  the  churches ; 
but  if  they  stand  there  on  their  money-bags,  and  ask 
to  be  measured  not  according  to  the  height  of  their 
Christian  character,  but  according  to  the  height  of 
these  pedestals  of  worldliness  —  wealth,  social  posi- 
tion, hereditary  rank,  connection  with  public  affairs 
—  then  I  say  the  time  has  come  for  us  to  cast  abroad 
God's  truths  as  scythes,  and  mow  down  all  these 
unnatural  growths  !  On  the  floor  of  God's  house 
he  is  tallest  who  is  nearest  to  God.  [Loud  ap- 
plause.] 

Let  nobody  suppose  that  I  am  opposing  rich  men 
as  a  class.  A  man  is  a  man  even  though  his  father 
was  rich.  [Laughter.]  There  have  been  in  this 
country  and  there  are  now  among  us  rich  men  who 
are  apostles.     Lately  there  fell  in  New  York  city  the 


68  ORIENT. 

central  trunk  of  a  banyan-tree,  of  whicli  it  has  been 
well  said  by  Dr.  Cuyler  that  it  threw  down  a  stem 
into  almost  every  land  of  the  globe.  William  E. 
Dodge  spread  abroad  his  benefactions,  his  personal 
Christian  effort,  his  oversight  of  great  religious  en- 
terprises, until  he  was  a  power  in  India,  a  power  in 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  a  power  in  Japan,  a  power  in 
half  the  States  of  this  Union.  [Applause.]  We  have 
many  men,  not  known  to  the  public  and  not  very 
wealthy,  who  are  the  almoners  of  the  churches,  of 
the  philanthropic  institutions,  of  the  colleges  and  the 
schools.  On  the  whole,  there  is  no  country  in  the 
world  where  wealth  is  more  generous  than  here,  unless 
it  be  Great  Britain,  but  wealth  there  is  concentrated 
in  a  privileged  class  and  in  a  powerful  middle  class, 
so  that  a  comparison  can  hardly  be  made  at  all 
points  with  fairness.  Everything  considered,  many 
wealthy  men  here  must  be  regarded  as  princes  of 
generosity.  But  the  time  comes,  occasionally,  when 
it  is  necessary  to  say  that  men  must  be  measured 
by  character,  and  not  by  their  purses  or  their  so- 
cial pedestals.  We  must  resist,  therefore,  the  idea 
that  any  church  is  too  good  to  be  enlarged  from  any 
part  of  the  population  of  a  city.  For  one,  I  think, 
there  is  no  church  even  in  Boston  that  ought  to  be 
above  adding  to  its  membership  converts  from  the 
North  End.  [Applause.]  I  have  heard  of  a  church 
in  New  York  city  that  lost  a  large  part  of  its  mem- 
bership by  people  emigrating  up  the  island ;  and, 
finally,  the  population  around  it  became  so  bad  that, 
according  to  Dr.  Pentecost's  admirable  statement,  the 
church  itself  emigrated.     There  were  no  longer  any 


REVIVALS,   TRUE  AND   FALSE.  59 

people  around  it  which  its  members  cared  to  associate 
with.     [Laughter.] 

These  shrewd  pastors  behind  me  are  men  of  brav- 
ery. They  have  entered  the  ministry  not  from  finan- 
cial motives,  for  there  are  no  financial  motives  to 
lead  men  into  the  ministry.  They  have  obtained 
a  collegiate  education,  they  have  gone  through  long 
years  of  professional  training,  and  now  they  stand  as 
God's  apostles  before  the  masses  of  the  people.  They 
preach  to  save  souls,  and  yet  there  are  times  when 
even  their  courage  is  tried  by  lofty  pride  in  wealthy 
churches,  and  an  unexpressed  feeling  that  some  men 
are  too  corrupt  in  their  past  connections,  or  too  low 
in  their  present  social  standing,  or  too  poor  to  be  at- 
tractive persons  in  a  luxurious  house  of  God.  I  call 
any  such  meeting  place  for  a  select  few  a  club-house. 
A  luxurious  church  that  is  not  ready  to  receive  mem- 
bership from  any  quarter  of  the  population  is  a  so- 
cial preserve,  and  not  a  church.      [Applause.] 

The  worst  two  evils  within  the  domain  of  Chris- 
tendom in  our  time  are  probably  luxurious  living 
among  church-members  and  loose  thinking  among  re- 
ligious teachers.  When  the  two  go  together  and  we 
have  a  religious  club  instead  of  a  church, — a  club 
in  which,  of  course,  it  would  be  uncourteous  to  sup- 
pose that  there  are  any  sinners,  a  club  that  has  for- 
gotten that  all  men  are  brethren,  and  that  the  busi- 
ness of  the  church  is  to  stand  between  the  living  and 
the  dead ;  when  we  have  a  number  of  such  churches 
connected  by  close  social  ties,  and,  perhaps,  giving 
direction  to  great  central  currents  in  the  religious  life 
of  a  city,  —  the  time  then  has  come  to  unite  all  the 


60  ORIENT. 

powers  of  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and  the  platform 
against  the  choking  of  God's  most  holy  truth  by- 
purse-strings  and  by  ribbons  and  by  dashes  of  the 
lavender  waters  of  liberalism.  One  fifth  of  our  pop- 
ulation lives  in  large  cities.  Under  the  voluntary 
system  of  church  life  in  the  United  States  it  is  likely 
to  be  our  prevailing  trouble  that  when  Judas  carries 
the  bag  and  betrays  his  Lord,  he  will  not  always 
have  the  grace  to  go  and  hang  himself  [laughter], 
and  that  church  members  will  not  usually  have  the 
grace  to  hang  him. 

2.  The  church  for  the  times  will  emphasize  the 
hidden  half  of  Christian  unity. 

If  it  cannot  secure  church  union,  it  will  secure 
Christian  union.  It  will  call  often  for  union  meet- 
ings of  all  evangelical  denominations,  and  organize 
united  efforts  for  common  purposes. 

3.  The  church  for  the  times  will  ascertain  what 
hinders  individuals  from  accepting  Christianity ;  it 
will  receive  questions  and  organize  searching  inqui- 
ries as  to  the  current  obstacles  to  conversion. 

If  I  were  a  pastor,  I  should  do  again  what  I  did 
once,  when  for  a  year  I  was  acting  pastor :  keep  a 
question-box  open  constantly  for  those  timid  people 
who  cannot  go  to  a  pastor's  study  and  discuss  their 
difficulties  with  him.  I  might  have  a  committee  to 
examine  the  questions  and  weed  out  frivolous  and 
vexatious  ones  ;  but  very  few  of  these  would  be  put 
in  after  all,  as  you  would  find  by  experience.  Sev- 
eral pastors,  to  my  knowledge,  have  tried  question- 
boxes  in  their  churches,  and,  with  a  certain  wise 
oversight,  differing  in  each  individual  case,  these  en- 


REVIVALS,    TRUE   AND   FALSE.  61 

terprises  have  turned  out  well.  Either  in  my  Sab- 
bath-school or  at  the  church  door,  I  would  have  a 
question-box  always  open  for  anonymous  written 
inquiries  on  the  topics  discussed  in  the  pulpit  or  in 
the  Sabbath-school.  I  would  bring  out  in  all  ways 
the  secret  intellectual  and  moral  difficulties  of  my 
parish,  and  thus  I  would  learn  to  fire,  not  into  the 
air,  but  at  the  white  of  the  eye.  Romanism  has  its 
confessional,  and  Protestantism  ought  to  be  permit- 
ted to  have  its  question-box,  to  reveal  the  wants  of 
the  people.  The  secret  of  securing  attention  is  to 
say  the  thing  that  needs  to  be  said ;  but  one  method 
of  ascertaining  what  needs  to  be  said  is  to  study 
carefully  the  secret  questions  the  people  are  raising. 

4.  The  church  for  the  times  will  teach  church- 
members  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in 
them. 

There  ought  to  be  in  every  Sunday-school  one 
class  in  Christian  apologetics,  besides  occasional 
courses  of  lectures  on  this  subject  before  every  con- 
gregation. 

5.  The  church  for  the  times  will  teach  all  church- 
members  to  converse  on  personal  religion  with  the 
religiously  irresolute. 

In  the  winter  season  most  of  the  devotional  meet- 
ings of  the  church,  or,  at  least,  one  such  meeting  a 
week,  ought  to  be  closed  by  conversations  between 
the  church-members  present  and  any  religiously  ir- 
resolute persons  who  are  willing  to  remain  for  such 
conversations.  At  a  devotional  meeting,  you  have 
made  an  earnest  address  on  some  incisive  point  of 
evangelical  truth,  and  at  the  close  of  the  service  you 


62  ORIENT. 

announce  the  doxology.  But  before  it  is  sung  you 
give  notice  that  all  who  are  religiously  irresolute  are 
requested  to  remain  for  conversation  with  church- 
members.  If  any  must  leave,  they  go  out  while  the 
hymn  is  being  sung ;  but  those  who  remain,  by  that 
act  open  the  door  to  conversation.  Without  any  dis- 
courtesy you  may  approach  such  persons  on  the  most 
sacred  topics  of  personal  religion.  Let  your  church- 
members  converse  with  every  one  of  those  who  re- 
main ;  go  with  these  members  yourself,  and  hear 
enough  of  the  conversation  to  know  whether  wise 
advice  is  given.  You  say  church-members  cannot  be 
trusted  to  do  this  work  ?  They  can  with  a  proper 
amount  of  teaching  from  their  pastor.  He  is  a 
wretched  church-member  who  does  not  Ijnow  how  to 
answer  the  question,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  " 
But  here  is  a  man  whose  bargains  the  last  week,  it 
may  be,  have  run  as  close  to  lies  as  the  eyelid  to  the 
eyeball,  and  the  neighbor  he  has  cheated  sits  at  his 
side,  and  this  shrewd  merchant  is  expected  to  talk 
with  his  neighbor  on  the  conditions  of  salvation. 
The  discipline  is  as  good  for  the  merchant  as  for  his 
neighbor.  [Applause.]  Nothing  makes  a  live  man 
out  of  a  dead  man  so  soon  as  to  set  the  dead  man  at 
the  work  of  producing  life  in  another  dead  man. 
These  conversations  quicken  the  church  immensely. 

6.  The  church  for  the  times  will  prepare  for  re- 
vivals, as  the  spring  prepares  in  its  earlier  for  its 
later  season. 

Religious  conversations  ought  to  be  made  a  stand- 
ard part  of  devotional  meetings  in  the  church,  in  our 
climate,  in  the  winter.     But  the  whole  world  is  not 


REVIVALS,   TRUE   AND   FALSE.  63 

in  our  climate.  There  are  churches  that  ought  to 
be  like  the  tropical  forests,  always  bringing  forth 
fruit,  always  filled  with  blossoms,  —  buds  here  open- 
ing, fruit  there  dropping.  Our  seasons  are  such  that 
in  the  long  evenings  of  winter  we  have  special  op- 
portunities ;  and  this  proves  only  that  our  church 
affairs  should  be  managed  something  as  the  agricul- 
tural affairs  of  our  zone  are.  Let  us  always  be  pre- 
paring to  put  in  the  seed,  or  putting  in  seed,  or  reap- 
ing the  harvest. 

7.  The  church  for  the  times  will  protect  the  fruit 
of  revivals,  as  the  summer  ripens  the  births  of 
spring. 

My  central  idea  concerning  revivals  is  that  what 
are  called  the  evils  of  revivals,  by  those  who  oppose 
them,  usually  arise  because  proper  work  has  not  been 
done  before  the  revivals,  or  is  not  done  after  them. 
A  revival  is  only  like  the  opening  of  the  clouds  in 
the  spring  and  the  beating  down  of  the  sunlight ;  or 
like  the  dropping  of  the  gentle  showers  and  the  ver- 
nal rains.  What  will  the  sunlight,  what  will  the 
rain  do  without  the  deep  planting  of  the  seed,  or 
without  the  careful  watching  of  the  fields  after  the 
tender  shoots  have  sprung  forth  ? 

Mr.  Moody's  revivals  have  turned  out  thoroughly 
well  in  every  case  where  they  have  been  followed  up 
properly.  A  few  men  say  his  work  here  or  there  has 
not  eventuated  well.  Did  the  pastors  follow  it  up  ? 
Was  the  seed  deeply  planted  before  he  came  ?  He 
is  nothing  but  the  shower,  he  is  nothing  but  the 
opening  in  the  clouds.  God  seems  to  speak  through 
some  evangelists ;  He  gives  them  power  to  open  the 


64  ORIENT. 

heavens  and  let  the  sunlight  in  upon  spiritual  fields. 
By  endowment  of  Heaven,  this  capacity  was  in  Ed- 
wards, it  ,was  in  Whitefield,  it  was  in  Wesley  and 
Finney,  and  it  is  in  many  an  evangelist  of  to-day, 
thank  God ;  but  we  must  remember  that  the  plant- 
ing of  the  seed  and  the  protection  of  the  green  shoots 
are  quite  as  important  as  allowing  the  sunlight  and 
rain  to  fall  upon  the  fields.  In  this  city  I  happen  to 
know  that  certain  revered  pastors  —  who  sit  on  this 
platform  at  this  moment  and  whom  I  must  not  name 
—  have  followed  up  carefully  the  converts  who  came 
forward  in  their  fields  of  labor  in  Mr.  Moody's  re- 
vival. If  you  go  to  these  pastors  and  ask.  what  has 
been  the  result  of  Mr.  Moody's  effort  here,  they  will 
say  it  has  been  glorious.  In  two  or  three  instances 
reformed  drunkards  have  become  large  benefactors 
of  the  churches,  both  spiritually  and  financially. 
The  men  who  have  followed  up  these  converts  give 
you  a  good  report  of  Mr.  Moody's  work;  but  the 
men  who  folded  their  hands,  the  men  who  said,  "  Let 
the  harvest  take  care  of  itself,"  the  men  who  were 
immersed  in  luxurious  lives  and  had  torpid  congrega- 
tions, and  who  did  not  care  to  soil  the  skirts  of  their 
churches  with  any  acquisitions  from  unpopular  por- 
tions of  our  masses,  —  these  persons,  if  you  approach 
them,  have  usually  only  a  cold  answer  to  give  to 
any  question  as  to  the  effect  of  Mr.  Moody's  work 
here.  I  care  nothing  for  the  answers  of  such  men. 
I  repudiate  such  men  as  authorities  on  this  theme. 
Greatly  as  we  in  America  revere  Mr.  Moody's  work, 
I  found  in  Edinburgh  deeper  reverence  for  it  than 
I  find,  on  the  whole,  in  Boston.      I  found  in  Lon- 


REVIVALS,   TRUE   AND   FALSE.  65 

don,  on  the  whole,  higher  esteem  for  it  than  I  have 
been  able  to  find,  usually,  in  New  York.  On  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  wherever  I  have  been  in  fields 
he  has  visited,  I  have  had  abundant  proof  that  his 
work,  when  followed  up  by  the  local  pastors,  has 
eventuated  successfully.  Look  at  Oxford  !  Were  not 
the  young  men  reached  there  ?  Why  were  they 
reached?  Chiefly  because  God's  truth  was  boldly 
preached  and  made  fruitful  by  his  Spirit ;  but  partly, 
also,  because  Mr.  Moody's  hands  were  held  up  by 
men  of  position  in  the  Established  Church.  Were 
his  hands  held  up  here?  Did  Harvard  professors 
stand  by  him  here,  as  Oxford  professors  stood  by  him 
in  the  British  Islands,  as  Edinburgh  professors  stood 
by  him  in  Scotland  ?  I  happen  to  know  a  dozen 
men  of  great  learning  and  culture  who  thought  it  an 
honor  to  go  into  the  inquiry  meetings  and  converse 
with  the  religiously  irresolute  in  Edinburgh  and  in 
London.     [Applause.] 

Dr.  Crafts,  of  Brooklyn,  lately  sent  out  an  hun- 
dred letters  to  preachers  and  Sabbath-school  super- 
intendents, with  the  question:  "How  many  of  you 
came  into  the  church  during  periods  of  religious 
awakening,  commonly  called  revivals  ?  "  The  answer 
was,  four  sevenths.  As  I  part  from  this  theme  allow 
me  to  ask  this  audience  the  same  question.  I  will  ex- 
plain exactly  what  I  mean  to  do,  so  that  none  of  you 
can  suppose  I  am  trying  to  catch  any  of  you  unawares. 
I  am  about  to  ask  all  Christians  in  this  assembly  to 
rise — all  Christians,  Protestant  or  Romish,  evangel- 
ical or  unevangelical.  This  is  putting  the  case  very 
broadly  and  at  a  disadvantage  to  the  propositions  I 


66  ORIENT. 

am  defending.  Then  I  am  to  ask  all  those  Christians 
to  sit  down  who  did  not  come  into  the  church  in 
some  period  of  religious  awakening,  by  which  I  mean 
a  period  in  which  a  considerable  number  came  into 
the  church  under  special  effort.  I  do  not  mean  a 
month's  special  effort,  or  that  the  effort  was  in  the 
Methodist  form,  or  the  Congregationalist,  or  the 
Presbyterian,  or  the  Episcopalian.  I  mean  simply  a 
religious  awakening,  occurring  under  some  particular 
measures  intended  to  make  religion  a  personal  mat- 
ter. How  many  of  the  Christians  in  this  assembly 
came  into  the  church  under  such  effort  ?  I  believe 
we  shall  find  that  more  than  half  did  so. 

8.  In  every  religious  service  the  church  for  the 
times  will  make  religion  a  personal  matter,  and  will 
preach  so  as  to  secure  immediate  decision  of  the  soul 
to  accept  God  in  Christ  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord. 

We  have  had  preaching  to  the  intellect,  we  have 
had  preaching  to  the  emotions,  we  have  had  preach- 
ing to  the  fancy  ;  the  time  is  coming  when  no  preach- 
ing will  be  considered  thoroughly  evangelical  unless 
it  is  addressed  to  the  will.  [Applause.]  In  every 
religious  service  religion  ought  to  be  made  in  some 
way  a  personal  matter.  I  would  have  every  prayer 
include  in  it  petitions  implying  the  total  self-surren- 
der of  the  will  to  God.  It  is  a  serious  conviction  of 
mine  that  we  might  improve  the  ordinary  form  of 
closing  public  religious  services.  Perhaps  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  no  man  has  a  right  to  pronounce 
the  benediction.  We  have  a  right  to  invoke  it ;  but 
we  can  invoke  it  effectively  only  by  total  self-surren- 
der to  God.      I  wish  every  religious  service  were 


REVIVALS,  TRUE  AND  FALSE.         67 

closed  by  a  form  including  the  petition  "  Thy  king- 
dom come,  thy  will  be  done  in  every  one  of  us  this 
instant  as  in  heaven ;  "  and  then  a  moment  of  silent 
self  -  consecration,  implying  that  every  individual  is 
reined  up  to  the  duty  of  immediate,  total,  affection- 
ate, self-surrender  to  God  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord, 
after  which  I  would  have  the  benediction  invoked 
upon  all  such  as  have  thus  surrendered.  In  Calcutta, 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  leader  of  the  theistic  move- 
ment in  India,  has  arranged  a  ritual  for  his  people, 
who  are  not  Christians,  but  simply  believers  in  a  per- 
sonal God  and  providence  and  prayer.  At  one  point 
of  that  service,  all  the  people  present  rise  and  utter 
the  words  "  Give  us  light."  They  then  remain  in 
silent  prayer  for  some  seconds.  A  little  later  the 
congregation,  with  the  minister,  call  out :  "  Victory  to 
God  !  Victory  to  God !  "  Then  there  is  another  si- 
lent prayer.  At  the  end  of  that  inexpressibly  solemn 
act  of  devotion  the  pastor  says  :  "  Peace !  Peace  !  " 
This  has  the  spirit  of  Christianity  ;  I  wish  that  in  our 
Christian  rituals  there  were  something  like  it.  Unless 
we  have  this  address  to  the  will,  we  leave  out  the 
most  effective  portion  of  every  religious  service.  Only 
those  who  say  "Victory  to  God ! "  deserve  to  have  or 
can  have  the  benediction  effectively  pronounced  over 
them.  I  am  not  a  friend  of  innovations;  but  I  wish 
exceedingly  that  in  the  ordinary  closing  of  religious 
exercises  there  were  always  something  to  rein  up 
every  hearer  to  total  self-surrender  to  God. 

Now,  my  friends,  you  will  favor  me  with  this  ex- 
pression which  I  have  explained  in  advance,  and  on 
which  I  have  allowed  you  time  to  think.     Will  all 


68  ORIENT. 

Christians  in  this  assembly  please  rise  ?  [Appar- 
ently 2,500  of  an  audience  of  over  3,000  rose.]  This 
assembly  represents  all  evangelical  bodies.  It  is  a 
most  cheerful  fact  that  certainly  more  than  2,000 
people  rise  here  as  Christians.  Will  such  of  you  as 
did  not  come  into  the  Church  in  some  period  of  spe- 
cial religious  awakening,  commonly  called  a  revival, 
such  of  you  as  didi'Tiot  come  in  through  a  gateway  of 
special  religious  effort,  sit  down,  and  will  the  rest 
remain  standing?  [The  request  was  heeded.]  At 
least  four  sevenths  of  the  2,000  or  more  Christians 
of  this  assembly  have  remained  standing ;  two  thirds, 
some  of  the  gentlemen  behind  me  say ;  some,  three 
fourths.  I  thank  you  most  cordially  for  this  expres- 
sion. Any  form  of  special  religious  effort  that  has 
brought  half  or  four  sevenths  of  our  Christians  into 
the  church  is  sufficiently  justified  in  experience  by  the 
Divine  approval. 


LECTURE  II. 
ADVANCED  THOUGHT  IN  INDIA. 

Through  the  gate  of  the  Red  Sea,  Sinai  on  the 
left,  the  Pyramids  on  the  right,  you  enter  the  Indian 
Ocean,  the  North  Star  hanging  low  behind  your 
ship  and  the  Southern  Cross  rising  from  the  heated 
horizon  in  front. 

At  Aden  you  see  a  British  Gibraltar  —  an  island 
that  is  little  more  than  a  cinder,  but  carved  into  mili- 
tary might ;  heavy  batteries  frowning  from  the  lower, 
middle,  and  upper  slopes ;  great  reservoirs  for  water 
in  the  parched  red  rock ;  30,000  people,  large  military 
detachments,  huge  men-of-war,  a  position  that  domi- 
nates Arabia  and  Northeastern  Africa,  and,  of  course, 
insures  a  proper  respect  for  British  interests  in  the 
whole  length  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Suez  Canal. 

Nowhere  on  the  highways  of  travel  around  the 
earth  do  you  find  a  hotter  region  than  between  the 
sands  of  Arabia  and  those  of  Sahara.  On  your  tour 
of  the  world,  you  afterward  cross  the  Equator,  once 
in  the  region  of  the  East  Indies  and  again  south  of 
the  Sandwich  Islands ;  but  you  suffer  little  from 
heat  in  the  former  case,  and,  in  the  latter,  under  the 
cool  trade-winds  from  the  Andes,  you  wear  your 
ulster  in  the  evening  as  you  pass  the  Line.  In  the 
Red  Sea,  however,  it  is  possible  that  you  may  need 


70  ORIENT. 

a  double  Scotch  cap,  with  the  interstices  filled  with 
pounded  ice,  to  prevent  sun-stroke.  In  spite  of  the 
broad  punkahs  which  servants  of  the  ship  now  swing 
above  the  tables  in  the  cabin,  in  spite  of  your  con- 
stant use  of  the  wide  fans  of  the  Orient,  in  spite  of 
your  dressing  as  nearly  as  possible  in  gauze,  in  spite 
of  your  punctual  attention  to  cold  baths,  in  spite  of 
your  total  abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks  and 
wine  and  beer,  you  need  to  guard  against  sun-stroke 
by  a  thick  sun-hat.  At  Suez  the  fashion  of  careful 
travelers  to  the  Orient  is  to  put  on  solar  helmets. 
You  begin  there  to  carry  everywhere  in  the  sunshine 
an  umbrella,  covered  on  the  outside  with  white. 
There  is  an  uncompromising  fierceness  in  the  sun- 
beams, utterly  unknown  to  one  who  has  not  been  in 
the  Tropics ;  something  searching  and  deadly  charac- 
terizes the  impact  of  the  javelins  of  light  and  heat  even 
at  sunrise,  but  especially  when  the  king  of  the  broil- 
ing day  is  directly  overhead  or  in  the  mid-afternoon 
sky.  "  Stand  out  of  the  sunshine  !  Keep  out  of  the 
glare  of  the  sun  !  "  You  hear  constantly  these  novel 
directions  given  in  anxious  tones  to  inexperienced 
children.  Without  being  forced,  as  many  are,  to  use 
protecting  spectacles,  you  fall  into  the  habit  of  hold- 
ing your  eyelids  half  closed,  a  tendency  which  may 
become  such  a  habit  as  to  endure  after  your  return  to 
temperate  latitudes.  You  are  sometimes  in  a  ship 
that  moves  with  a  slow,  hot  wind,  and  so  you  have  no 
relief  afforded  by  the  breezes  of  the  ocean.  Occasion- 
ally a  ship  has  been  known  to  pause  in  the  Red  Sea, 
reverse  its  course,  lose  time,  and  move  against  the 
wind  for  a  few  hours,  in  order  to  relieve  its  passengers 


ADVANCED  THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  71 

from  the  effects  of  the  intolerable  heat.  There  is, 
however,  in  the  Red  Sea,  as  there  is  not  in  the  best 
season  at  Bombay  and  Calcutta,  a  great  difference 
between  the  temperature  at  night  and  by  day.  The 
sands  radiate  heat  rapidly.  There  is  an  Arabian 
proverb  which  says  that  "  The  servant  in  the  cool- 
ness of  the  morning  forgot  to  provide  water  for  the 
heat  of  the  day."  You  make  the  most  of  the  slight 
relief  the  nights  give ;  you  sleep  on  deck,  and  take 
every  precaution ;  but,  even  in  December,  when  the 
sun  is  south  of  the  Equator,  you  come  out  of  this 
terrific  funnel  between  the  two  hottest  deserts  of  the 
world,  exceedingly  glad  to  find  yourself  in  average 
health.  If  you  enter  the  open  Indian  Ocean  without 
anything  like  dizziness  or  the  approaches  of  sun- 
stroke, you  may  regard  yourself  as  probably  proof 
against  the  heats  of  India  in  its  cooler  season  and  of 
the  Equator  on  the  sea  in  any  part  of  the  world. 
Whoever  has  gone  through  the  Red  Sea  in  August 
unscathed  is  likely  to  be  able  to  look  the  sun  in  the 
eye  anywhere  on  the  planet. 

How  shall  I  approach  the  land  of  pearls  and  palms, 
of  religions  more  ancient  than  Christianity,  and  of 
philosophies  which  were  old  when  Greece  was  young  ? 
You  are  afloat  on  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  Hindustan 
has  not  yet  come  into  sight.  The  dim  tawny  head- 
lands of  Arabia  pass  out  of  view.  The  noons,  under 
the  soft  monsoon,  are  temperate  in  heat ;  the  sea  is 
gentle  in  its  mood  day  after  day.  In  the  tropic 
azure,  Orion  blazes  almost  overhead  every  evening 
before  you  leave  the  decks.  You  gaze  long  at  the 
marvelous   flashing  of   Sirius  and  Canopus,   Aldeb- 


72  ORIENT. 

aran  and  Procyon.  Jupiter,  at  nine  o'clock,  is  a 
great  flame  directly  above  the  masts  ;  red  Mars  burns 
lower  down  in  the  Eastern  sky.  The  Pleiades  are 
north  of  you  when  they  pass  the  zenith.  An  hour 
before  dawn,  on  the  morning  after  you  leave  Aden, 
you  behold  for  the  first  time  the  holy  splendor  of 
the  Southern  Cross.  Ursa  Major,  at  about  the  same 
hour,  illuminates  the  sinking  northern  sky.  On  the 
Mediterranean  shore  of  Egypt  the  apparent  height 
of  the  North  Star  is  three  of  your  hand's  breadths, 
the  arm  stretched  fully  out.  At  Aden,  as  you  enter 
the  Arabian  Sea,  its  height  is  hardly  more  than  one 
hand's  breadth. 

It  is  a  trait  of  the  sensitive  traveler  that  he  is 
more  or  less  distinctly  conscious  of  all  that  is  hap- 
pening under  the  meridian  he  is  crossing.  Your 
soul  touches  on  your  left  thirsty  Persia,  the  plains 
of  Tartary,  the  forests  of  the  Ural  Mountains,  the 
polar  ice.  On  your  right  the  waves  and  winds  have 
unobstructed  course  all  the  way  from  the  frozen  seas 
beneath  the  Southern  Cross.  You  dream  of  Mada- 
gascar, Mauritius,  Paul  and  Virghiia,  Cape  Moun- 
tain, the  sources  of  the  Congo  and  the  Nile.  You 
behold  Livingstone  dying  while  on  his  knees  in 
prayer  for  the  regeneration  of  Africa.  You  see  Stan- 
ley crossing  the  Dark  Continent,  and  now  founding 
colonies  and  suppressing  the  slave-trade  on  the  banks 
of  the  Congo. 

In  spite,  however,  of  all  else  that  in  sky  and  sea 
and  beyond  the  sea  rivets  your  attention,  your 
thoughts  are  gradually  absorbed  by  India.  You  hear 
in  imagination   more  distinctly    with  every   sunrise 


ADVANCED   THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  73 

the  rustle  of  its  palms  and  bamboos  and  mango- 
trees,  the  flow  of  its  rivers,  the  mysterious  voices  of 
its  past,  the  multitudinous  stir  of  its  present  millions, 
the  advancing  footsteps  of  its  future. 

You  have  in  your  hand  a  globe,  the  companion  of 
many  a  studious  hour,  and  you  notice  that  India, 
from  north  to  south,  —  that  is,  from  the  top  of  Cash- 
mere to  Cape  Comorin,  —  is  as  long  as  a  line  from 
Boston  to  Pike's  Peak.  A  line  of  similar  length  on 
the  map  of  Europe  extends  from  Gibraltar  to  Con- 
stantinople. The  breadth  of  India,  from  the  western- 
most mouth  of  the  Indus  to  the  easternmost  mouth 
of  the  Ganges,  is  slightly  more  than  the  distance  from 
Boston  to  Omaha,  or  from  Paris  to  St.  Petersburg. 
The  distance  from  Bombay  to  Calcutta  is  only  that 
from  Boston  to  St.  Louis. 

Gibbon  estimated  that  imperial  Rome,  at  the  height 
of  her  power,  governed  only  120,000,000  of  men. 
The  British  Empire  governs  in  India  alone  250,000,- 
000.  India  is  only  as  large  as  all  Europe,  less  Rus- 
sia ;  but  it  has  a  population  as  large  as  that  of  Eu- 
rope. In  a  territory  only  about  as  large,  to  speak 
roundly,  as  that  of  the  United  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri,  India  has  five  times  our 
present  population.  You  think  that  here  would  be 
superb  opportunity  for  usefulness,  if  only  the  English 
language  were  understood  by  the  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple. You  ask  whether  it  will  be  possible  to  gather 
large  assemblies  to  listen  to  discussions  on  religious 
and  philosophical  themes  and  exclusively  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue.  You  are  in  great  doubt  as  to  what 
may  happen,  but  you  are  resolved  to  be  a  student,  at 


74  ORIENT. 

least;  and  yet  you  leave  open  half  your  time  for 
the  work  of  lecturing.  In  regard  to  this  latter  mat- 
ter, you  make  no  predictions  ;  you  promise  yourself 
absolutely  nothing.  You  have  been  told  in  Edin- 
burgh and  elsewhere  that  there  is  no  opportunity  on 
earth  for  usefulness,  through  English  lectures,  like 
that  in  India  at  the  present  moment ;  but  you  have 
not  credited  this  statement.  You  have  regarded  it 
as,  perhaps,  only  an  indication  of  sentimental  attach- 
ment to  India,  or  of  a  desire  to  encourage  you  in  a 
difficult  enterprise. 

It  is  a  glorious  morning  in  the  Orient.  Far  over 
the  purple  and  azure  waves  toward  the  sunrise  you 
see  for  the  first  time  the  Western  Ghauts,  that  jagged 
ridge  which  shuts  out  the  ocean  from  India  on  the 
west.  A  little  later  the  distant  towers  and  domes 
of  a  city  begin  to  come  into  view  at  the  foot  of  low 
hills,  clad  with  palms  and  mango-trees  and  a  great  va- 
riety of  strange  tropical  vegetation.  In  another  half 
hour,  after  turning  a  picturesque  point  of  land,  you 
are  afloat  in  a  magnificent  harbor,  large  enough  to 
'hold  all  the  British  fleets  and  alive  with  shipping  of 
all  nations.  You  land  at  a  massive  granite  pier,  at 
the  edge  of  a  great  esplanade,  in  the  second  city  of 
the  British  Empire  —  queenly  Bombay. 

You  have  landed  with  speed ;  otherwise  you  would 
have  been  met  by  a  steam  launch,  containing  a  lecture 
committee.  That  launch  is  on  the  water  and  chases 
you  in,  and  before  you  reach  your  hotel  the  commit- 
tee overtakes  you.  To  make  a  long  story  short,  that 
evening  and  the  next  day  about  a  dozen  prominent 
merchants,  preachers,    and    civilians,  arrange   for  a 


ADVANCED  THOUGHT  IN  INDIA.  75 

course  of  six  or  eight  lectures,  to  be  given  in  one  of 
the  largest  halls,  and  the  city  is  at  once  placarded 
from  end  to  end  —  with  what  subjects  ?  Philosophical 
themes,  religious  topics,  nothing  very  sensational  in 
the  titles,  no  music  promised,  a  prominent  presiding 
officer  mentioned  in  connection  with  each  lecture  — 
an  important  matter  in  any  British  community ! 

The  great  esplanade  of  Bombay  is  surrounded  by 
magnificent  government  buildings,  with  deep  veran- 
das, under  screens.  Everything  in  the  architecture 
suggests  the  necessity  of  protection  against  heat.  The 
city  is  young.  It  was  not  built  and  rebuilt ;  at  least, 
the  British  part  was  not.  This  municipality  is  not 
as  old  as  Boston.  You  admire  the  broad  streets,  laid 
out  by  British  engineers.  Of  course,  in  the  native 
quarters  you  have  hovels  and  real  squalor,  but  still  it 
is  not  the  squalor  of  our  populations  of  the  temperate 
zones,  for  these  children  have  no  filthy  clothes  upon 
them ;  they  have  no  clothes  at  all,  except  on  their 
heads.  Literally,  the  only  wardrobe  of  seven  children 
out  of  ten  on  the  streets  consists  of  anklets  and  ear- 
rings. 

Bronze,  fine  bronze,  admirable  for  its  quality  — 
that  is  the  complexion  of  these  Hindus  of  the  lower 
class.  It  is  not  a  coarse,  oleaginous  bronze.  You 
learned  to  admire  this  bronze  when  you  were  at  Aden 
and  saw  the  Somali  boys  by  scores  swimming  around 
your  ship.  They  dive  for  a  shilling  or  a  penny.  You 
throw  a  piece  of  silver  from  the  upper  deck,  and  be- 
fore it  has  sunk  out  of  reach  the  Somali  boy  catches 
it  in  the  green  depths  of  the  sea,  in  spite  of  the  dan- 
ger from  sharks.     You  ask  him  to  dive  under  your 


76  ORIENT. 

ship,  or,  as  the  sailors  say,  to  write  his  name  upon 
the  keel  of  the  steamer,  and  in  a  few  seconds  after 
disappearing  at  one  side  he  comes  up  on  the  other  side 
of  the  vessel.  These  boys  swarm  on  deck.  You  can- 
not avoid  patting  your  hand  on  their  curly  heads, 
and  sometimes  on  their  shoulders.  It  is  a  very  fine 
bronze,  this.  You  find  the  same  in  Hindustan,  only 
a  little  finer. 

The  first  thing  that  impressed  me  in  India  was  the 
good  quality  of  the  temperament  of  the  Hindu.  He 
is  supple,  subtle,  fine,  keen-edged.  He  is  not  strong. 
He  is  enervated,  no  doubt,  by  his  child-marriages,  by 
the  climate,  by  his  diet  of  rice,  by  frequent  famines, 
and  by  poor  conditions  among  the  lower  classes  gen- 
erally. You  find  many  Brahmins,  however,  who  have 
this  same  excellent  quality  of  organization,  together 
with  normal  size  of  body  and  brain.  They  have 
physical  vigor  —  not  equal  to  that  of  the  Briton,  or 
German,  or  American  ;  but  they  are  forceful,  as  well 
as  keen-edged.  The  Sikhs  and  the  Rajpoots  are  tall, 
well-developed,  strong  men.  The  Gourkas,  from  the 
slopes  of  the  Himalayas,  are  short,  but  thick-set  and 
famed  for  military  valor.  The  Marathi  Brahmins, 
the  very  best  of  the  Brahmin  class,  in  the  central  por- 
tion of  India,  have  in  many  cases  the  real  vigor  of 
mountaineers. 

It  is  not  true  that  all  the  natives  of  India  are 
sheep ;  nevertheless,  your  first  impression  is  that 
they  are.  The  Hindu  is  ovine,  the  Briton  is  bovine, 
and  it  is  not  a  wonder  that  the  latter  rules  the  for- 
mer. The  Bengalee  is  especially  timid  and  inclined 
to  avoid  all  physical  contests.      He  makes  a  poor 


ADVANCED  THOUGHT  IN  INDIA.  77 

soldier.  He  usually  yielded  almost  without  opposi- 
tion to  those  who  oppressed  him  in  the  days  before 
the  East  India  Company  entered  upon  its  career  in 
Hindustan.  To  this  hour  he  has  the  reputation  of 
being,  physically,  a  poltroon  ;  but  in  other  respects 
he  has  a  high  character.  He  makes  the  best  account- 
ant among  the  races  of  India.  He  is  a  good  teacher; 
he  is  naturally  a  writer  and  speaker.  You  may  say 
of  the  Bengalee  that  he  is  born  with  an  essay  under 
his  arm  and  a  speech  on  his  lips.  There  are  all  classes 
of  Hindus,  of  course ;  but  the  general  feeling  you 
have,  at  first,  is  that  these  people  would  not  be  great, 
even  if  they  were  Christians.  After  weeks  and 
months,  however,  that  impression  changes.  If  your 
experience  is  like  mine,  you  come  to  feel  that  if  child- 
marriages  were  abolished,  if  polygamy  were  driven 
out  of  all  parts  of  India,  if  the  diet  were  somewhat 
changed,  if  the  conditions  of  life  were  improved,  you 
might  develop,  on  the  Ganges  especially,  and  even 
further  south,  a  stalwart  race,  quite  worthy  of  their 
origin  on  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas,  north  of  the 
great  wall,  which  shuts  out  India  from  the  rest  of 
Asia. 

The  day  comes  for  the  opening  of  your  course  of 
lectures  in  Bombay,  and  you  expect  a  great  humilia- 
tion. You  drive  down  at  night  along  a  back  street, 
in  order  to  be  ready  to  hide  your  diminished  head ;, 
but  you  find  that  the  large  hall  which  has  been  en- 
gaged is  already  overflowed  and  that  hundreds  are 
being  turned  away.  I  am  anxious  to  do  justice  to 
India,  and  by  showing  what  you  experience  there  I 
shall  show  what  India  is.     You  say  this  gathering 


78  ORIENT. 

must  have  been  drawn  together  by  the  name  of  the 
chairman.  It  is,  of  course,  not  a  ticketed  assembly. 
Here  are,  you  think,  before  you  go  into  the  house, 
the  English  people  of  Bombay,  who,  perhaps,  may 
have  thought  it  something  of  a  novelty  to  listen  to  a 
lecturer  from  America,  and  it  may  be  have  come  out 
to  sneer.  You  have  probably  more  enemies  in  this 
dense  gathering  than  friends.  You  go  before  that 
assembly,  as  you  go  before  every  one,  if  your  expe- 
rience is  like  mine,  resolved  to  remember  your  ene- 
mies, and  never  to  overrate  the  friendship  of  any  au- 
dience before  which  you  may  stand.  But  you  enter 
the  house  and  look  about  almost  in  vain,  outside  the 
platform,  for  an  English  or  American  face.  Red 
and  white  turbans  are  packed  to  the  roof.  You 
turn  to  your  chairman  and  say :  *'  Where  are  the 
police  ?  There  will  be  disorder  here  if  I  deliver  to 
this  audience  the  lecture  I  had  in  mind.  I  may  not 
please  all  these  Hindus."  "  Speak  here  as  you  would 
in  London.  Speak  here  as  you  would  in  Edinburgh," 
he  replies.  "  There  is  no  need  of  policemen  here. 
There  are  four  in  the  hall ;  but  they  will  not  be  re- 
quired. This  audience  will  be  as  orderly  as  any  you 
ever  met  in  the  British  Empire."  But  you  say: 
*'  They  cannot  understand  English,  all  of  them  ;  and  I 
cannot  promise,  knowing  nothing  of  this  assembly,  to 
keep  the  house  quiet.  I  am  a  perfect  novice  here  and 
might  easily  make  very  grave  mistakes."  The  chair- 
man says  :  "  Go  forward  as  you  would  in  London  or 
Edinburgh.     I  will  be  responsible  for  the  rest." 

You  soon  find  that  a  Bombay  Hindu  audience  un- 
derstands English  apparently  as  well  as  this  Boston 


ADVANCED   THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  79 

assembly  does.  In  the  sea  of  Oriental  faces,  keen, 
incisive  countenances  flash  out.  The  bronze  glows 
like  colored  porcelain  with  a  light  behind  it.  Bright 
eyes  meet  yours,  and  gleam  responsively  under  the 
red  turban,  and  not  less  under  the  Parsee  hat.  The 
Parsees,  by  the  way,  are  simply  a  fragment  of  the 
old  Persian  race,  somewhat  acclimated  in  India. 
They  are  the  foremost  mercantile  class,  and  are  well 
represented  here.  Nearly  all  of  them  speak  English 
perfectly.  After  addressing  this  assembly  for  a  few 
minutes,  you  come  to  feel  that  there  is  no  danger  of 
disorder  or  of  your  being  misunderstood.  The  next 
night  a  considerable  number  of  seats  are  sold,  in  order 
that  those  people  who  cannot  come  until  late  may 
have  an  opportunity  of  getting  places.  In  this  way 
your  lecture  committee  has  a  slight  income  ;  but  you 
have  made  up  your  mind  not  to  charge  anything  for 
your  work  on  missionary  soil.  There  is  an  income 
from  the  necessary  sale  of  seats  to  provide  people 
with  an  opportunity  of  being  present  under  pleasant 
circumstances ;  but,  without  this,  there  would  have 
been  nothing  to  provide  for  the  expenses,  except  what 
generous  Christian  merchants  and  civilians  gave  for 
the  support  of  the  course  of  lectures.  After  three 
nights  in  this  commodious  hall,  you  are  turned  out 
of  it,  on  account  of  the  numbers  who  are  not  able  to 
get  in.  You  go  into  the  Town  Hall,  the  very  largest 
assembly  room  in  the  city,  holding  about  as  many  as 
Tremont  Temple,  and  your  friends  find  it  necessary 
to  go  there  early,  if  they  are  to  obtain  seats.  Large 
numbers  of  the  audiences  have  only  standing  room. 
Each  lecture  is  nearly  two  hours  long.     A  series  of 


80  ORIENT. 

six  lectures  closes  with  a  call  for  an  additional 
course. 

At  last,  terribly  overworked,  you  fly  out  of  Bom- 
bay, supposing  that  this  is  the  only  city  in  India,  un- 
less it  be  Calcutta  or  Madras,  that  will  give  you  audi- 
ences that  understand  English  thoroughly  well.  You 
have  a  similar  experience  in  Calcutta,  a  similar  one  in 
Madras.  You  are  convinced  that  in  the  great  Presi- 
dential cities  English  is  well  enough  understood  to  ena- 
ble you  to  address  audiences  in  that  tongue.  Between 
Bombay  and  Calcutta,  however,  you  give  lectures  to 
fine  audiences  in  Poona,  Ahmednagar,  Lucknow,  and 
Allahabad.  Even  in  fanatical  Benares,  on  the  bank 
of  the  Ganges,  and  afterward  in  Southern  India,  in 
Bangalore  and  Madura,  you  have  crowded  assemblies, 
made  up  almost  exclusively  of  natives,  who  listen  to 
the  severest  things  you  are  inclined  to  say  concerning 
the  hereditary  misbelief  and  the  imported  unbelief  of 
Hindustan.  During  three  lectures  in  the  immense 
Town  Hall  at  Calcutta  many  hearers  are  obliged  to 
stand,  and  the  most  distant  people  in  your  audience 
'are  two  hundred  feet  away  from  your  platform,  and 
they  are  natives.  You  have  Keshub  Chunder  Sen 
to  move  a  vote  of  thanks  at  your  last  lecture.  You 
come,  little  by  little,  into  the  feeling  that  the  English 
tongue  is  the  mightiest  weapon  of  public  iisefulness 
in  Hindustan  to-day. 

Nowhere,  except,  perhaps,  in  the  case  of  the  Span- 
ish in  South  America,  has  a  language  spread  more 
rapidly  through  great  populations  not  born  with  it 
on  their  lips,  than  English  has  in  India.  The  Span- 
ish grandees  would  not  condescend  to  learn  the  Ian- 


ADVANCED   THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  81 

guage  of  their  servants.  Thus  the  servants  were  com- 
pelled to  learn  the  language  of  the  masters,  and  so 
even  savage  tribes  in  South  America  now  sometimes 
speak  Spanish.  Surrounded  constantly  by  far  too 
obsequious  and  cringing  Asiatics,  the  average  British 
official  in  India  does  not  suffer  from  a  deficient  sense 
of  his  own  personal  dignity.  He  is  not  eager  to 
learn  the  dialects  of  his  multitude  of  servants.  They 
must,  therefore,  learn  English.  The  classical  tongues 
of  India,  which  are  the  admiration  of  all  scholars, 
and  almost  objects  of  worship  to  Brahmins,  are,  of 
course,  not  the  vernacular.  Hindustanee  has  wide 
prevalence,  but  no  one  inferior  tongue  is  of  universal 
currency.  India  has  sixty  distinctly  different  lan- 
guages and  more  than  one  hundred  dialects.  Uni- 
versity instruction,  as  conducted  under  British  au- 
thority, always  requires  a  knowledge  of  English. 
There  is  universal  demand  for  instruction  in  Eng- 
lish among  the  educated  classes.  A  knowledge  of  it 
is  an  avenue  to  employment  in  the  great  mercantile 
houses  and  in  the  schools  and  in  the  civil  service. 
Two  of  the  greatest  names  among  those  of  men  to 
whom  India  is  indebted  for  the  early  introduction  of 
English  into  her  schools  and  governmental  papers  are 
Alexander  Duff  and  Lord  Macaulay. 

One  year  ago  to-day,  my  friends,  fleeing  out  of  the 
steaming  vat  of  Calcutta,  it  was  my  fortune  to  begin 
a  short  period  of  rest  in  the  Himalaya  Mountains. 
I  summarize  my  memories  of  India,  usually,  by  go- 
ing back  to  Darjeeling  and  looking  abroad  over  all 
Hindustan,  as  if  the  whole  of  it  were  in  sight. 

The  Himalayas,  as  a  mountain  range,  dazzle  both 


82  ORIENT. 

Alps  and  Andes,  not  out  of  sight,  but  into  a  position 
of  positive  inferiority.  On  a  bill  in  a  park  at  Dar- 
jeeling,  among  tea  plantations,  you  bave  in  view 
twelve  mighty  peaks,  every  one  of  which  is  over 
20,000  feet  high.  You  count  twenty  stupendous,  far- 
flashing  summits,  every  one  overtopping  the  giant 
of  the  Alps.  Mont  Blanc  is  less  than  16,000  feet 
high,  but  Kinchinjunga,  on  which  you  look  through 
the  unobscured  azure  of  two  days,  is  28,000  feet  in 
elevation.  Mount  Everest,  supposed  to  be  the  high- 
est peak  on  earth,  is  29,000  feet  high,  —  five  miles  of 
the  earth's  crust  thrown  into  the  azure.  You  remem- 
ber Mont  Blanc  as  seen  from  Geneva  and  Chamounix, 
and  you  have  intense  reverence  for  Switzerland,  its 
waterfalls,  its  lakes,  its  avalanches,  its  holy  solitudes, 
its  stealthy  glaciers,  its  everlasting  snows,  its  roseate 
peaks.  When  you  are  in  presence  of  the  Himalayas, 
Switzerland  seems  to  you  like  a  toy.  Here  are 
mountains  surpassed  nowhere  on  earth,  and  nowhere 
in  the  human  range  of  vision,  except  in  the  moon. 
The  lunar  mountains,  which  are  higher  than  any  on 
'  the  earth,  are  rolled  over  our  heads  nightly  and  are 
strangely  unappreciated.  Except  the  Yosemite  Val- 
ley, there  is  no  mountain  scenery  that  I  compare  in 
my  secret  thoughts  with  the  Himalayas.  Of  course, 
the  summits  around  the  Yosemite  are  not  as  grand 
in  height,  but  there  is  a  certain  impressiveness  in  El 
Capitan,  and  a  combination  of  beauty  and  sublimity 
in  the  valley,  which  make  me  rank  the  Yosemite  sec- 
ond to  the  Himalayas,  while  I  place  all  that  Switzer- 
land can  show  as  third  in  dignity  among  the  mighty 
scenes  in  mountains  on  our  globe. 


ADVANCED  THOUGHT   IN   INDIA,  83 

Look  abroad  from  the  Himalayas,  and  what  do  you 
see  ?  Three  things.  First,  this  unsurpassed  range 
of  mountains ;  next,  the  northern  Indian  plain  —  his- 
toric, electric  with  mightj^  associations,  the  cradle  of 
great  political  changes,  the  birthplace  of  great  relig- 
ions, a  brown  and  green  expanse,  fringed  with  palms 
and  bamboos,  through  which  flow  the  Indus  and  the 
Ganges ;  then,  thirdly,  the  southern  portion  of  the 
peninsula,  high  mountains  on  the  west  side,  low  ones 
on  the  east,  and  a  triangular  stretch  of  high  table- 
land between  them,  called  the  Deccan. 

As  your  memories  take  you  back  to  it,  what  is  In- 
dia? It  is  Bombay,  with  its  magnificent  harbor,  its 
Elephanta  caves,  its  stately  English  government  of- 
fices, its  aristocratic  bungalows  on  Malabar  Hill,  its 
Parsee  Towers  of  Silence,  on  which  the  vultures 
strip  the  flesh  from  the  bones  of  the  dead ;  its  Par- 
sees  worshiping  on  the  wharves  and  shores  at  the 
setting  of  the  sun,  with  their  faces  turned  toward  the 
west ;  its  Hindus  burning  corpses ;  its  multitudinous 
mixture  of  sects  and  nationalities,  like  that  of  Alex- 
andria of  old.  It  is  Allahabad,  with  its  junction  of 
the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges  crowded  with  the  festi- 
vals of  rehgious  pilgrims.  It  is  Delhi,  with  its  ruins 
of  Saracenic  grandeur,  its  stately  Kutub  Minar,  —  a 
campanile  more  imposing  than  Giotto's  famous  tower, 
—  its  magnificent  mosques  and  marble  palaces,  and 
its  conflict  of  creeds,  philosophies,  and  politics.  It  is 
Lucknow,  with  its  pathetic  memories  of  the  siege  of 
1857.  It  is  Cawnpore,  with  its  monuments  to  British 
martyrs.  It  is  Agra,  with  the  tomb  of  Akbar  and 
the  peerless  Taj  Mahal,  a  structure  of  which  Bishop 


84  ORIENT. 

Heber  said,  most  justly,  that  "  it  was  designed  by 
Titans  and  finished  by  jewelers."  It  is  Benares, 
with  its  stately  residences  for  the  few  and  its  squalid 
streets  for  the  many ;  its  gaudy  temples,  with  frivo- 
lous or  filthy  rites ;  its  crowds  of  pilgrims,  bathing  in 
the  Ganges ;  its  burning  ghats,  where  the  dead  are 
reduced  to  ashes.  It  is  Calcutta,  with  its  palaces  and 
schools  and  fleets  and  toiling  thousands.  It  is  Ma- 
dras, with  its  surf-boats,  its  vigorous  missions,  its  firm 
grasp  on  both  the  land  and  sea.  It  is  the  sacred 
Ganges,  a  wide,  tawny,  shallow  flood,  rolling  through 
a  brown  and  dusty  tropical  plain.  It  is  a  toiling  pop- 
ulation of  pinched  and  oppressed  lower  classes.  It  is 
a  decaying  native  nobility,  their  magnificence  slowly 
paling  under  British  rule.  It  is  Occidental  civiliza- 
tion making  fatal  inroads  upon  Oriental  fashions. 
It  is  caste  going  out  of  date.  It  is  Christianity  sub- 
duing a  subtle  but  effete  paganism.  It  is  the  Hima- 
layas, with  their  inspired  heights  and  solitudes  under 
sun  and  moon,  contemplating  all  and  prophesying 
better  ages  to  come.  India  signifies  the  commingling 
of  Occident  and  Orient ;  India  is  already  the  rudder 
of  reform  for  all  Asia.  You  become  passionately  at- 
tached to  this  land  for  its  own  sake,  and  because  you 
feel  that  whoever  is  useful  in  India  is  reaching  Asia 
at  large. 

As  you  look  abroad  over  India  from  the  Himalayas, 
the  organizing  dates  of  her  history  seem  to  be  writ- 
ten in  the  sky  and  to  be  whispered  to  you  by  her 
palms  and  mangos,  her  tamarinds  and  banyans,  her 
bread-fruit  trees  and  bamboos. 

1400  B.  c.  —  Arrangement  of  the  Vedas  by  Vyasa. 


ADVANCED  THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  85 

1200.  —  Events  of  the  mighty  epic  poem  called  the 
Mahabharata. 

1000.  —  Events  of  the  epic  of  Ramayana,  by  Vahl- 
miki. 

800.  — Institutes  of  Menu. 

500-543.  —  Gotama  Buddha. 

327.  —  Invasion  by  Alexander. 

270-240.  —  Reign  of  Asoka. 

200  B.  c.-lOOO  A.  D.  —  Obscure  mediaeval  rajahs. 

1219  A.  D.  —  Invasion  by  Genghis  Khan. 

1600.  —  Organization  of  the  East  India  Company. 

1605.  —  Death  of  Akbar,  two  years  after  that  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  England. 

1640.  —  Founding  of  Madras. 

1648.  —  Date  of  the  completion  of  the  Taj  Mahal. 

1666.  —  Death  of  Shah  Jehan. 

1668.  —  Bombay  begun. 

1689.  —  Calcutta  founded. 

1707.  —  Death  of  Aurungzebe. 

1757.  —  Battle  of  Plassey. 

1857.  —  Sepoy  mutiny. 

1858.  —  The  Queen  becomes  the  direct  ruler  of 
India. 

1877.  —  Proclamation  of  her  Britannic  Majesty  as 
Empress  of  all  India. 

Hindus  in  India,  Greeks  in  India,  Mohammedans 
in  India,  British  in  India,  —  these  are  the  chief  divi- 
sions in  the  long  story  of  the  Valley  of  the  Ganges, 
—  four  invasions,  three  by  land  and  one  by  sea. 

Xavier  (1506  - 1552)  arrived  in  India  as  a  mis- 
sionary in  1540;  Schwarz  (1726-1788)  in  1750; 
Carey  (1761-1834)  in  1794;  Judson  (1788-1850) 


86  ORIENT. 

in  1813;  Heber  (1783-1826)  in  1824;  Wilson 
(1804-1875)  in  1829;  Duff  (1806-1878)  in  1830. 
Lord  Macaulay  was  in  Calcutta  in  1834.  The  uni- 
versities of  Calcutta,  Bombay,  and  Madras  were 
founded  in  1857. 

If  this  audience  will  bear  with  me,  I  will  read  a 
few  of  the  scores  of  questions  which  I  was  constantly 
putting  in  India,  and  indicate  very  briefly  the  an- 
swers which  were  given  to  me  there  :  — 

1.  What  are  the  chief  religious  difficulties  of  the 
best  educated  Hindus,  and  what  are  those  of  the 
most  ignorant  ? 

The  chief  religious  difficulties  of  the  best  educated 
Hindus  are  attachment  to  caste ;  Brahminical  pride 
of  intellect,  and  love  of  subtle  disputes,  without  prac- 
tical results ;  the  obliteration  of  the  sense  of  sin  by 
mere  ceremonialism  in  religion  ;  English  education 
in  universities  preserving  a  neutral  attitude  toward 
all  faiths  ;  contagion  of  agnostic,  positivist,  and  pan- 
theistic speculation  from  the  West ;  a  mistaken  con- 
viction that  Christianity  is  losing  its  influence  in  the 
educated  circles  of  the  Occident. 

The  most  ignorant  Hindus  are  under  the  control  of 
superstition  connected  with  the  hereditary  misbelief  ; 
they  are  the  dupes  and  almost  the  slaves  of  the 
priestly  class ;  and  here  is  the  power  of  paganism, 
here  is  the  horror  of  a  false  faith.  What  is  this 
man  doing  ?  He  lies  down  in  the  dust  and  measures 
his  length,  rises  to  his  feet,  and  then  measures  his 
length  again.  He  is  passing  over  hundreds  of  miles 
in  this  way.  Why  is  he  going  through  these  austeri- 
ties ?    In  order  to  shorten  the  eight  million  four  hun- 


ADVANCED   THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  87 

dred  thousand  re-births,  and  cut  off  some  portion  of 
the  long  line  of  transmigrations  through  Avhich,  as 
he  thinks,  all  souls  not  specially  favored  must  go. 
The  theory  of  the  average  Hindu  is  that  he  must  be 
re-born,  and  that,  if  he  has  preeminent  merit  in  this 
life,  he  will  be  born  on  a  higher  scale.  Every  man 
must  go  through  millions  of  transmigrations,  and  emi- 
nent merit  here  will  lessen  the  number  of  these,  and 
so  bring  heaven  nearer.  Austerities  of  the  most  hor- 
rible kind  you  see  practiced  at  Benares,  and  you  ask 
why  men  endure  them,  and  the  answer  is :  "  To 
shorten  the  eighty-four."  The  two  wheels  on  which 
the  chariot  of  Hinduism  in  the  ignorant  populations 
moves  are  positive  belief  in  transmigration  and  in 
caste.  Whoever  can  break  these  wheels  may  smite 
Hinduism  into  fragments. 

2.  What  are  the  most  frequent  types  in  the  relig- 
ious experience  of  Hindu  converts  ?  that  is,  by  what 
aspects  of  Christian  truth  are  the  most  conversions 
made? 

By  those  aspects  which  justify  its  claim  to  be  a  Di- 
vine Revelation ;  those  which  awaken  a  sense  of  the 
necessity  of  the  deliverance  of  the  soul  from  the  love 
and  the  guilt  of  sin ;  and  those  which  show  that 
Christianity,  and  it  only,  can  effect  this  deliverance. 

3.  What  are  the  most  mischievous  forms  of  im- 
ported unbelief  in  India  ? 

Positivism,  pantheism,  agnosticism,  as  represented 
in  the  various  schools  of  rationalism  in  Europe.  The 
passing  fashions  of  sceptical  circles  in  the  West  are 
often  influential  at  the  Antipodes  after  they  are  thor- 
oughly outgrown  and  discredited  in  the  places  of 
their  origin. 


88  ORIENT. 

4.  Is  it  advisable,  as  a  general  rule,  in  India,  that 
the  members  of  churches  organized  by  missionary 
labor  should  be  taught  and  expected  to  pay  one  tenth 
of  their  income  for  the  support  of  their  churches  ? 

Missionaries  of  the  American  Board  generally  an- 
swer this  question  in  the  affirmative ;  but  others  say, 
Not  yet. 

5.  What  definite  plan  ought  the  churches  to  sup- 
port for  the  abolition  of  the  abuses  of  the  opium 
trade  ? 

All  Christian  India  should  petition  Parliament  for 
the  entire  abolition  of  the  trade,  and  for  such  new 
treaties  with  China  as  shall  be  worthy  of  Christian 
statesmanship. 

6.  What  attitude  ought  the  Christian  churches  to 
take  in  India  as  to  the  evils  of  caste  ? 

It  should  never  be  recognized  in  the  church  and 
constantly  opposed  outside  the  church. 

7.  What  ought  to  be  the  position  of  the  Christian 
churches  in  India  as  to  the  mischief  of  child-mar- 
riages ? 

They  should  petition  government  to  abolish  them 
by  law,  as  it  did  suttee,  or  the  burning  of  widows,  in- 
fanticide, and  the  exposure  of  the  aged  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ganges,  and  suicide  under  the  wheels  of  the 
car  of  Juggernaut. 

8.  What  is  the  attitude  of  English  officials  and  of 
foreign  society  in  general  in  India  toward  the  relig- 
ious reformation  of  the  empire? 

Some  of  the  most  efficient  friends  of  missionary 
effort  have  been  found  among  the  great  civilians  of 
India ;   as,  for,    example,   Lord   Lawrence   and   Sir 


ADVANCED   THOUGHT   IN   INDIA.  89 

William  Bentinck.  The  Christian  fame  of  a  Gen- 
eral Havelock  has  become  one  of  the  treasures  of  the 
whole  world.  It  is  to  be  confessed,  however,  that 
large  parts  of  fashionable  society  in  governmental 
circles  in  India  are  of  too  coarse  a  spiritual  fibre  to 
relish  aggressive  Christian  work,  or  to  appreciate  the 
missionary  movement  which  is  preparing  for  India 
and  all  Asia  a  new  civilization.  It  used  to  be  the 
proverb  that  Indian  officials  sent  from  England  leave 
their  Christianity  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  on  the 
voyage  out,  and  take  it  up  again  there  on  the  voy- 
age home.  Nothing  as  cynical  as  this  would  now  be 
true. 

9.  What  reforms  do  the  educated  classes  of  India 
wish  to  effect  in  its  political  condition  ? 

They  ask  for  commissions  of  inquiry  into  the  work- 
ing of  the  British  government ;  they  demand  freedom 
of  the  press ;  they  aspire  to  the  use  of  representative 
institutions  for  all  India.  As  definite  steps  toward 
the  last  of  these  changes,  they  propose  the  extension 
of  the  elective  principle  to  all  first  class  municipali- 
ties of  British  India ;  the  concession  to  the  munici- 
pal boards  of  the  three  Presidency  towns  and  a  few 
other  great  Indian  cities  of  the  right  to  elect  mem- 
bers of  the  legislative  councils ;  the  extension  of  the 
scope  of  these  councils  so  as  to  include  questions 
of  finance.  (See  Dr.  W.  W.  Hunter's  Lectures  on 
"  England's  Work  in  India,"  p.  135.) 

10.  What  do  progressive  and  cultivated  Hindus 
think  is  likely  to  be  the  future  of  British  power  in 
India  ? 

Peaceful  supremacy  for  perhaps  an  hundred  years 


90  ORIENT. 

to  come  if  these  reforms  are  slowly  granted  and  due 
wisdom  is  exercised  ;  otherwise,  extinction. 

11.  Of  what  use  will  an  exhaustive  study  of  Ori- 
ental false  religions,  and  especially  of  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Brahmins  and  the  Buddhists,  be  in  the 
illustration  and  defense  of  Christianity  ? 

As  Max  Miiller  has  said,  in  his  introduction  to  his 
edition  of  the  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,"  he  who 
seriously  puts  forward  any  of  these  as  a  rival  of  the 
Christian  Scriptures  lacks  scholarship.  Nevertheless, 
the  best  ethical  maxims  and  the  noblest  imaginative 
passages  of  Oriental  pagan  sacred  books  have  a  value 
of  substance,  though  not  of  form,  perhaps  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  the  best  ethical  and  poetical  parts  of 
Greek  literature.  Nothing  in  history  or  philosophy, 
however,  in  Asiatic  pagan  books,  equals  what  has 
been  transmitted  to  us  on  these  topics  by  the  Greeks. 
The  foremost  theists  of  India  have  given  up  wholly 
the  doctrine  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Vedas.  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen  professes  solemnly  that  it  is  only  in  the 
Bible  that  he  and  his  followers  find  the  satisfaction 
of  their  deepest  spiritual  wants.  The}^  know  well 
what  the  light  of  Asia  is,  and  affirm  that  it  is  twi- 
light. In  a  thorough  study  of  comparative  religion, 
Christianity  has  nothing  to  fear  and  much  to  gain. 

12.  What  has  been  the  rate  of  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity in  India,  and  what  is  its  present  numerical 
strength  in  all  India  and  Ceylon  ? 

In  the  last  ten  years  not  only  has  the  ratio  of  in- 
crease of  former  decades  been  kept  up,  but  a  great 
advance  has  been  made  upon  it,  especially  in  India, 
where  the  growth  has  risen  to  100  per  cent.     It  was 


ADVANCED  THOUGHT  IN  INDIA.        91 

my  fortune  to  exhibit  often  to  Hindu  audiences  ta- 
bles of  statistics  like  these  in  support  of  the  proposi- 
tion that  Christianity  has  come  to  India  to  stay : 

Native  Christians 

1851.             1861.  1871.  1881. 

India 91,092  138,731  224,258  417,372 

Burmah No  returns.      59,366            62,729  75,510 

Ceylon 11,859           15,273            31,376  35,708 

Total 102,951         213,370  318,363  528,590 

Communicants. 

India 14,661  24,976  52,816  113,325 

Burmah No  returns.      18,439  20,514  24,929 

Ceylon 2,645  3,859  5,164  6,843 

Total 17,306  47,274  78,494  145,097 

In  the  first  of  these  decades  the  ratio  of  increase 
was  fifty-three  per  cent.;  in  the  second,  sixty-one  per 
cent.;  in  the  last,  eighty-six  per  cent.  In  Ceylon  the 
percentage  of  increase  in  the  past  ten  years  is  sev- 
enty, while  in  India  it  is  one  hundred.  None  of  the 
European  or  American  churches  can  exhibit  such  an 
increase.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  this 
rate  of  increase  will  be  exceeded  in  the  next  ten 
years.  (See  the  New  York  "  Independent "  for  Feb- 
ruary 1,  1883,  p.  8.)  It  may  be  possible,  as  the 
"  Indian  Witness  "  suggests,  that  there  are  many  per- 
sons now  living  who  will  see  from  ten  to  fifteen  mil- 
lion Protestant  Christians  in  India  before  they  obtain 
release  from  toil  in  this  earthly  vineyard.  The  larg- 
est aggregate  increase  of  native  Christians  was  in  Ma- 
dras, where,  in  place  of  160,955  Christians  ten  years 
ago,  there  are  now  299,742.     The  distribution  among 


92  ORIENT. 

the  provinces  and  the  rate  of  increase  is  shown  by 
the  following  table :  — 

Madras 299,742  86  per  cent 

Bengal 83,583  67  " 

Burmah 75,510  27  " 

Ceylon 35,508  70  " 

Bombay 11,691  180  " 

N.  W.  Provinces 10,300  64  " 

Central  India 4,885  92  " 

Punjab 4,672  155  " 

Oudh 1,329  111  " 

The  Calcutta  Missionary  Conference,  a  most  re- 
markable gathering,  containing  representives  from  all 
the  provinces  between  the  Himalayas  and  the  sea, 
publishes  these  statistics,  and  has  but  just  risen  from 
its  knees  on  the  banks  of  the  Hooghly,  where  it  has 
been  offering  devout  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  the 
progress  of  Christianity  in  India  at  a  speed  never 
equaled  anywhere  on  earth  except  in  the  time  of  the 
apostles.  No  part  of  the  world  can  show  such  a  rate 
of  increase  of  the  number  of  native  Christians  as 
India  can  during  the  last  decade.  A  mighty  ava- 
lanche is  already  poised  for  falling. 


III. 


KESHUB  CHUNDER  SEN  AND  HINDU 
THEISM. 

WITH  A  PRELUDE   ON 

LIMITED  MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE  FOR  WOMEN. 

THE    ONE    HUNDRED    AND    FIFTY-NINTH    LECTURE    IN    THE 

BOSTON    MONDAY    LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED    IN 

TEKMONT    TEMPLE,   MARCH  5,  1883. 


"  There  ought  to  be  no  pariahs  in  a  full  grown  and  civilized  nation  ; 
no  persons  disqualified  except  through  their  own  default.  Difference 
of  sex  is  as  entirely  irrelevant  to  political  rights  as  difference  in  height 
or  in  the  color  of  the  hair."  —  John  Stuart  Mill. 

"  Woman  represents  and  largely  is  the  conscience  and  the  heart  of 
Christendom.  More  than  man  she  beat  down  slavery  in  this  country. 
More  than  men  she  is  to  mould  the  future  of  the  world."  —  K.  S. 
Stokks. 


"  A  pagan,  kissing,  for  a  step  of  Pan, 
The  wild-goat's  hoof-print  on  the  loamy  down, 
Exceeds  our  modern  thinker  who  turns  back 
The  strata  —  granite,  limestone,  coal,  and  clay, 
Concluding  coldly  with,  '  Here  's  law !    Where 's  God  1 ' " 

Mrs.  Browning. 

"  God  sends  his  teachers  unto  every  age. 
To  every  clime,  and  every  race  of  men. 
With  revelations  fitted  to  their  growth 
And  shape  of  mind,  nor  gives  the  realm  of  Truth 
Into  the  selfish  rule  of  one  sole  race  : 
Therefore  each  form  of  worship  that  hath  swayed 
The  life  of  man,  and  given  it  to  grasp 
The  master-key  of  knowledge,  reverence, 
Infolds  some  germs  of  goodness  and  of  right." 

Lowell. 


PRELUDE  III. 

LIMITED  MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE   FOR   WOMEN. 

Why  should  limited  municipal  suffrage  be  granted 
to  women  ?  By  limited  municipal  suffrage  is  meant 
the  right  of  voting  limited  to  city  elections  and  to 
such  women  as  can  read  and  write  and  pay  a  volun- 
tary tax  for  the  privilege  of  exercising  the  franchise, 
and  are  residents  of  the  cities  in  which  they  vote,  and 
in  other  respects  have  the  qualifications  required  of 
male  voters. 

1.  More  than  a  fifth  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  now  lives  in  cities.  The  misgovern- 
ment,  illiteracy,  intemperance,  and  immorality  of  the 
larger  cities  are  among  the  hugest  practical  evils  of 
our  civilization.  Whatever  will  tend  to  purify  great 
cities  effectively  will  be  an  incalculably  important 
blessing  to  the  world  at  large,  for  the  tendency  of 
population  to  mass  itself  in  cities  and  the  dispropor- 
tionate growth  of  crime  in  cities  are  phenomena  of 
all  advanced  modern  nations.  The  success  of  gov- 
ernments of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the 
people  is  inseparably  bound  up  with  the  success  of 
good  government  in  cities. 

2.  Self-support  is  more  difficult  for  women  than 
for  men,  and  so  women  have  selfish  reasons  which 
men   have   not   for   attachment  to   the   house,  and 


96  ORIENT. 

hence,  if  they  have  the  power,  may  be  expected  to 
defend  the  interests  of  home  more  carefully  than  men 
have  done. 

It  is  more  difficult  for  a  woman  to  maintain  her- 
self alone  than  for  a  man  to  do  so,  because  the  most 
gainful  occupations  are  not  open  to  her,  and  because 
she  is  physically  unfitted  for  the  severest  physical 
and  mental  labor ;  and  because  natural  laws,  with  a 
sternness  unknown  in  the  case  of  man,  require  of 
woman  periodic  rest ;  and  because  most  women,  even 
if  they  start  an  independent  business,  do  not  expect 
to  maintain  it,  but  to  merge  it,  after  marriage,  with 
that  of  their  husbands.  In  view  of  the  greater  diffi- 
culty of  their  self-support,  women  are  more  depen- 
dent than  men  on  good  laws  for  their  protection,  and 
hence  may  be  expected  to  be  more  solicitious  than 
men  to  purify  legislation  so  far  as  it  touches  the 
home,  which  is  the  very  centre  and  palladium  of 
free  society  and  especially  of  the  society  of  cities. 

3.  Women,  as  a  class,  illiterates  excepted,  are 
more  free  from  intemperance  and  immorality  than 
men,  and  hence  may  be  expected  to  cast  a  purer 
vote  for  the  reform  of  cities. 

The  caution  of  this  proposition  is,  I  hope,  not  a 
discourtesy  to  the  sex  whose  interest  I  am  endeavor- 
ing to  defend.  Omitting  illiterates,  chiefly  found  — 
among  women  —  in  our  recently  immigrated  popula- 
tion, the  very  froth  of  society  is  almost  the  only  place 
in  which  intemperance  can  be  found  in  this  country 
among  females.  I  am  not  speaking  of  England,  nor 
of  the  Continent ;  but  of  the  United  States.  In  the 
middle  class,  if  I  may  use  such  a  phrase  here,  and  in 


LIMITED   MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE   FOR   WOMEN.      97 

the  upper  part  of  what  we  call  the  poorer  class  and 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  wealthier  class,  women  in  the 
United  States  are,  as  a  rule,  not  only  temperate,  but 
abstinent.*  It  is  a  most  amazing  thing  to  find  in- 
temperance among  women  in  any  of  these  circles. 
What  we  really  ought  to  call  the  summit  of  Ameri- 
can society  is  to  be  found  in  the  best  educated  and 
the  most  efficiently  religious,  and  not  in  the  wealthier 
classes. 

A  few  years  since,  thank  God,  one  of  the  queens 
of  American  society,  at  the  White  House,  at  Wash- 
ington, turned  the  wine-glass  upside  down.  [Ap- 
plause.] That  precedent  has  been  set  and  will  al- 
ways remain  a  fact  in  American  history,  and  it  in- 
dicates what  the  real  summit  of  society  in  America 
thinks  of  intei:gperance. 

4.  Women,  as  more  dependent  on  home  than  men, 
suffer  more  from  the  vices  of  great  cities,  and  hence 
may  be  expected  to  do  more  for  the  reform  of  cities 
than  men  have  done, 

5.  By  endowment  of  Heaven,  women  are  more  at- 
tached to  children  in  their  tenderest  years  than  men 
are,  and  care  more  in  most  cases  for  the  interests  of 
fathers,  sons,  brothers,  and  husbands  than  these  male 
classes  do  for  themselves  in  matters  of  morals  [ap- 
plause], and  so  may  be  expected  to  purify  the  vote 
of  cities  in  the  interest  of  its  households. 

6.  Municipal  suffrage  for  tax-paying  women  has 
worked  well  for  many  years  in  England. 

Jacob  Bright  says  he  believes  England  will  lead 
America  in  the  matter  of  giving  municipal  suffrage 
to  tax-paying  ladies  ;  and,  indeed,  Great  Britain  does 

7 


98  ORIENT. 

lead  the  United  States  at  this  moment  in  the  matter, 
and  Scotland  is  likely  soon  to  lead  us  unless  reform 
with  us  progresses  much  more  rapidly  than  it  has 
done  of  late.  * 

7.  A  general  right  of  suffrage  for  women  has 
worked  well  for  fourteen  years  in  Wyoming,  and  the 
success  of  the  larger  privilege  of  voting  justifies  a 
hope  that  a  narrower  measure  would  eventuate  well. 

You  doubt  the  success  of  female  suffrage  in  Wyo- 
ming Territory.  I  claim  no  authority  on  this  mat- 
ter ;  but  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  visit  Wyoming 
three  times,  and  to  meet  civilians,  preachers,  and 
teachers  there,  and  to  study  carefully  the  press  of 
the  territory,  and  my  conviction  is  that  it  can  be 
established,  by  overwhelming  evidence,  that  woman 
suffrage  in  Wyoming,  on  the  whole,,  is  a  success. 
[Applause.]  As  I  am  not  a  woman  suffragist,  I 
am  not  led  by  the  necessities  of  a  theory  to  interpret 
the  experience  of  Wyoming  in  a  particular  way.  I 
hold  in  my  hand  a  tract,  recently  issued,  a  republica- 
tion of  a  somewhat  elaborate  leading  article  in  the 
'J.aramie  ''  Sentinel  "  of  Feb.  3,  1883,  and  in  it  I  find 
that  the  three  governors  of  Wyoming,  Campbell, 
Thayer,  and  Hoyt,  all  the  governors  that  the  terri- 
tory has  had  since  woman  suffrage  became  its  law, 
in  1869,  have  uniformly  indorsed  and  spoken  in  the 
highest  terms  of  its  practical  workings  in  all  their 
messages  and  official  documents.  No  one  can  be 
found  to  oppose  this  law  who  wants  to  see  good  gov- 
ernment in  the  territory.  The  women  prize  and  ex- 
ercise their  political  rights  as  highly  and  generally  as 
the  men.     There  is  a  less  percentage  of  women  who 


LIMITED   MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE   FOR   WOMEN.      99 

stay  away  from  the  polls  than  of  men.  It  is  no  un- 
common thing  for  wives  and  husbands  to  differ  in 
their  political  opinions  ;  but  this,  as  a  rule,  produces 
no  ill  social  effect.  It  is  treated  as  a  circumstance 
to  be  looked  on  with  good-humor.  "  Our  elections," 
this  authority  affirms,  "  were  formerly  an  improved 
and  revised  edition  of  a  Donnybrook  Fair.  Under 
the  refining  influence  of  woman's  presence,  they  are 
now  as  civil,  quiet,  and  orderly  as  are  our  churches  or 
any  other  social  gathering." 

How  do  ladies  vote  in  Wyoming  ?  It  is  perfectly 
proper  for  a  lady  to  walk  to  the  polls,  with  a  gentle- 
man as  attendant,  or  even  alone.  In  most  cases  ladies 
get  into  their  carriages,  with  their  husbands  or  their 
sons,  and  drive  to  a  sort  of  bay-window,  and,  without 
stepping  out  of  their  carriages,  drop  their  votes  into 
a  box  at  that  projection  of  the  office  where  votes  are 
counted.  A  most  dignified  procedure.  Poor  women 
may,  of  course,  not  go  to  the  polls  in  carriages ;  but, 
with  their  husbands  and  sons  with  them,  and  under 
guard  of  the  police,  such  is  American  honor  that 
no  indignity  need  be  feared  for  them,  even  in  the 
great  cities.  You  think  that  women  cannot  vote 
without  mixing  with  the  roughs  at  the  polls.  It  is 
astounding  how  beclouded,  benighted,  belated,  and 
barbaric  some  of  the  objections  to  woman  suffrage 
are,  and  especially  on  this  very  point.  [Applause 
and  laughter.] 

This  article  closes  by  saying :  "  We  speak  that 
which  we  know,  and,  as  an  evidence  of  good  faith, 
we  write  and  publish  this  here  at  home,  where  all 
the  facts  are  known,  and  where,  if  we  misstated  or 


100  ORIENT. 

misrepresented  the  matter,  it  would  be  at  our  own 
peril."  For  ten  years  such  documents  as  these  have 
been  published  in  Wyoming.  I  have  taken  pains  to 
gather  everything  I  could  find  opposed  to  this  evi- 
dence. Very  kind  friends  have  sent  me  official  pub- 
lications again  and  again  from  Wyoming  ;  civilians, 
as  well  as  preachers.  The  truth  is  that  the  prepon- 
derating opinion  goes  to  show  that  Wyoming  is  satis- 
fied that  woman  suffrage  is,  on  the  whole,  beneficial 
to  her ;  and  she  would  not  go  back,  if  she  could,  to 
the  old  arrangements.     [Applause.] 

8.  Women  are  less  connected  than  men  with  par- 
tisan political  intrigue,  corrupt  rings,  and  the  temp- 
tations of  business ;  and  hence  may  be  expected  to 
give  a  vote  more  nearly  according  than  man's  with 
the  merits  of  the  case  in  each  election. 

9.  Voting  would  increase  the  intelligence  of  women, 
and  be  a  powerful  incitement  to  female  education. 

10.  It  would  enable  women  to  protect  their  own 
industrial,  social,  moral,  and  educational  rights. 

Horace  Greeley  used  to  contend  that  seduction 
should  be  punished  by  death.  In  how  many  cities 
of  this  country  is  it  punished  with  severity  or  to  the 
extent  of  the  law  ?  Let  women  vote,  even  in  the 
limited  way  that  I  am  proposing ;  let  them  have  a 
voice  in  the  defense  of  their  own  rights  [applause], 
and  the  time  will  come  when  man  will  be  treated  as 
sternly  for  immorality  as  woman  is  to-day  [applause], 
and  may  God  hasten  that  hour.     [Loud  applause.] 

Velvet  life  wants  no  vote.  Dulcet  drones,  dear, 
respectable  people  in  effortless,  luxurious  circles,  pe- 
tition even  a  Massachusetts  legislature  against  having 


LIMITED   MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE   FOR  WOMEN.      101 

political  responsibilities  thrust  upon  them.  [Laugh- 
ter.] The  authoress  of  a  battle-hymn  of  the  repub- 
lic, she  who  has  heard  the  cry  of  humanity  for  the 
alleviation  of  its  terrible  distresses,  may  well  look 
upon  these  very  respectable  drags  on  the  wheels  of 
progress  with  scorn.  [Applause.]  An  eagle  does 
not  occupy  his  time  in  catching  flies.  [Laughter 
and  applause.] 

11.  Thousands  of  women  of  the  best  social  posi- 
tion petition  for  the  right  of  limited  municipal  suf- 
frage, and  only  a  few  hundreds  have  petitioned 
against  it. 

12.  Limited  municipal  suffrage  for  women  would 
be  an  experiment  by  which  the  merits  of  woman's 
suffrage  could  be  gradually  ascertained  by  experi- 
ence, without  danger  to  the  constitution  of  society, 
for  state  and  national  power  would  yet  be  exclu- 
sively in  the  hands  of  men,  and  if  this  experiment 
should  not  work  well  it  could  be  discontinued. 

13.  Excluding  all  illiterate  votes,  elections  that 
turn  on  large  moral  issues  like  license  or  no  license, 
prohibition  or  its  opposite,  or  on  education  in  cities, 
would  not  be  beyond  the  comprehension  of  the  mass 
of  female  votes,  as  instructed  and  led  by  the  best 
culture  in  their  own  class  and  by  public  discussion 
at  large,  and  so  would  not  greatly  increase  the  danger 
from  ignorant  voters. 

14.  Woman's  interests  in  the  great  moral  issues  at 
stake  in  city  government  are  so  immense  that  gradu- 
ally all  women  of  conscience  possessing  the  right  of 
suffrage  would  be  expected  to  use  it,  and  so  a  limited 
municipal  suffrage  would  not  greatly  increase  the 
evils  of  absenteeism  at  the  polls. 


102  ORIENT. 

15.  For  nearly  half  a  century  the  cause  of  a  lim- 
ited female  suffrage  has  been  winning  more  and  more 
golden  opinions,  not  only  among  philanthropists  and 
reformers,  but  among  legislators.  We  have  had, 
for  instance,  six  grave  governors,  and  one  governor 
not  very  grave,  in  this  Commonwealth,  who  have 
recommended  enlarged  woman  suffrage.  The  indus- 
trial, educational,  and  social  rights  of  women  have 
been  advanced  immensely  in  the  last  generation,  and 
experience  has  justified  these  changes.  Who  wants 
to  go  back  to  the  position  in  which  we  were  a  gener- 
ation since  in  regard  to  the  industrial,  educational, 
and  general  legal  rights  of  women  ? 

16.  My  supreme  argument,  however,  is  my  last. 
The  whiskey  rings  and  other  corrupt  classes,  who  are 
chiefly  responsible  for  the  misgovernment  of  great 
cities,  fear  nothing  so  much  as  limited  municipal  suf- 
frage for  women,  and  this  terror  of  the  enemies  of 
civilization  points  out  the  most  effective  weapon  that 
can  be  used  against  them.     [Applause.] 

You  think  that  I  have  forgotten  three  things : 
first,  the  dangers  of  an  ignorant  vote  ;  secondly,  the 
dangers  of  absenteeism  at  the  polls;  and  thirdly, 
the  dangers  of  voting  under  the  dictation  of  priests 
and  political  rings.  As  these  propositions  show,  I 
have  forgotten  none  of  these  things.  I  begin  by  ex- 
cluding the  illiterate  vote.  I  begin  by  excluding  all 
women  who  are  not  willing  to  pay  a  tax  for  the  right 
of  suffrage.  I  begin  by  putting  into  the  very  defini- 
tion of  limited  municipal  suffrage  such  qualifications 
that  the  class  who  are  most  open  to  the  misleading 
influences  of  priests  and  political  rings  are  shut  out. 


LIMITED   MUNICIPAL   SUFFRAGE   FOR   WOMEN.      103 

I  would  not  vote  for  municipal  Suffrage  for  women  in 
New  York  city  at  this  moment  without  the  reading 
test.  I  would  not  vote  for  it  in  Chicago,  or  St. 
Louis,  or  San  Francisco,  or  New  Orleans.  So  far 
from  being  a  fanatic  on  this  subject  am  I  that  I  re- 
gret exceedingly  the  absence  of  the  reading  test  for 
men  in  New  York,  and  would  vote  at  a  moment's 
notice  for  the  restoration  of  it  to  the  place  it  once 
held  in  my  native  commonwealth.  I  am  in  favor  of 
compulsory  voting.  I  want  Civil  Service  Reform 
carried  in  its  very  best  shape,  and  applied  not  only  to 
national,  but  to  state  and  municipal,  affairs.  I  am 
by  no  means  of  opinion  that  limited  municipal  suf- 
frage, such  as  I  now  defend,  will  bring  the  millen- 
nium, or  that  it  will  be  without  great  disappointments 
in  many  ways  ;  but  my  feeling  is  very  strong  that 
we  are  justified  by  experience  and  by  good  sense, 
amounting  to  much  more  than  a  theory,  in  trying 
such  an  experiment  as  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  many  legislatures  of  other  states  are 
now  asked  to  undertake,  by  petitions  annually  in- 
creasing in  number  and  urgency.  Even  states  as 
conservative  as  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts 
have  already  given  to  woman  in  cities  an  educational 
vote.  But  a  temperance  vote  is  even  more  clearly 
her  right  in  natural  justice  than  an  educational.  The 
cause  is  rising  to  a  high  tide  of  urgency,  under  the 
impulse  of  a  desire  for  protection  from  both  intem- 
perance and  illiteracy. 

This  is  a  cause  in  which  the  whole  world  is  inter- 
ested. In  speaking  of  it  here,  I  have  in  mind  Mel- 
bourne, Sydney,  Calcutta,  Bombay,  Paris,  and  Lon- 


104  ORIENT. 

don,  and  the  multitude  of  municipalities  which  are 
drifting  into  the  same  dangers  which  threaten  our 
great  cities.  The  right  management  of  great  towns 
will  be  an  absorbing  question  as  suffrage  broadens  in 
the  twentieth  century.  Let  America  remember  that 
on  this  topic  her  responsibilities  are  world-wide.  In 
view  of  the  growth  of  representative  institutions  in 
our  day,  in  view  of  the  massing  of  men  in  cities,  in 
view  of  the  general  elevation  of  woman's  condition  in 
Asia,  in  view  of  her  enlarging  industrial  and  educa- 
tional and  legal  rights  in  Europe  and  America,  who 
dares  predict  that  a  century  hence  there  will  not  be 
something  in  our  immensely  misgoverned  cities  like 
limited  municipal  suffrage  for  women  ?  I  believe 
that  this  reform  is  coming,  and  that  it  will  come  to 
stay.  God  grant  that  our  fashionable  society  may 
have  the  wisdom  to  ride  in  his  chariot,  and  not  be 
dragged  behind  its  wheels  !     [Applause.] 


LECTURE  III. 

KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN  AND  HINDU  THEISM. 

India  has  originated  two  of  the  most  widely  spread 
religions  of  the  globe  —  Hinduism  and  Buddhism. 
Is  it  now  likely  to  originate  another,  Eclectic  Theism, 
including  all  those  portions  of  Christian  and  non- 
Christian  faiths  which  agree  ?  This  is  the  question 
naturally  raised  by  the  career  of  the  eminent  Hindu 
reformer,  once  leader  of  the  theistic  organization 
called  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  and  now  of  its  most  pro- 
gressive portion  called  the  New  Dispensation,  the 
eloquent  Babu  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  of  Calcutta. 

In  the  line  of  religious  endeavor  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen  is  a  lineal  successor  of  Ram  Mohun  Roy,  whose 
studies  of  Christianity  began  at  about  the  time  when 
the  great  Scottish  missionary  Duff  was  commencing 
his  marvelous  career  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges. 

Ram  Mohun  Roy  was  born  of  Brahmin  parentage 
at  Bordwan,  Northern  India,  in  1774,  and  died  at  Bris- 
tol, while  on  a  visit  to  England,  in  1833.  From  early 
studies  under  Mohammedan  teachers  he  imbibed  a 
hatred  of  idolatry.  He  highly  reverenced  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures,  and  at  last  came  to  regard  them  as 
ultimate  authority  concerning  religious  truth,  but  he 
never  became  a  member  of  any  Christian  organiza- 
tion.    It  may  be  claimed  with  justice  that  in  theory 


106  ORIENT. 

he  was  a  vacillating  adherent  of  a  shallow  but  con- 
servative form  of  Unitarianism.  His  principle  was 
to  preach  a  reformed  Hinduism  to  Hindus  and  a  re- 
formed Christianity  to  Christians.  He  founded  in 
Calcutta  a  Vedantic  institution,  to  revive  the  ancient 
monotheism  of  India.  His  reform  had  in  it  both  a 
Christian  and  a  Vedantic  element,  and  these,  as  in- 
herited by  his  successors,  have  struggled  for  suprem- 
acy over  each  other  in  the  movement  he  began.  The 
organization  he  formed  grew  into  something  which 
was  called  a  theistic  church,  with  a  house  of  wor- 
ship, congregation,  membership,  covenant,  and  public 
declaration  of  faith. 

Extraordinary  devotional  exercises  became  a  part 
of  the  discipline  of  the  Brahmos,  under  the  devout 
leadership  of  Debendra  Nath  Tagore,  a  reformer  who 
followed  Ram  Mohun  Roy  as  chief  guide  of  the  the- 
istic movement.  The  infallibility  of  the  Vedas  was 
formally  given  up,  and  theism  proclaimed  by  Ram 
Mohun  Roy's  successors,  about  the  year  1850.  The 
Brahmo  Somaj  (God  Society)  then  addressed  itself 
to  the  formation  of  a  definite  national  creed.  This 
included  only  what  is  known  in  the  theological  schools 
of  the  West  as  natural  religion.  Brahmo  marriages 
and  intermarriages,  although  prohibited  by  the  Hindu 
rules  of  caste,  began  from  the  year  1861.  This  stage 
of  progress  led  to  a  rupture  between  the  older  and 
younger  party  of  Brahmos  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Brahmo  Somaj  of  India,  in  1860. 

The  leader  of  the  younger  party  of  Brahmos  was 
Keshub  Chunder  Sen.  Under  his  incitement,  rad- 
ical social  changes  were  advocated.     An  Indian  Re- 


KESHUB    CHUNDER    SEN   AND   HINDU  THEISM.       107 

form  Association  was  established  in  1870 ;  an  active 
missionary  organization  was  constituted ;  preachers 
began  to  travel  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  the 
other ;  the  doctrines  of  love  for  God  and  communion 
with  God  (Bhakti  and  Yoga)  began  to  be  explained 
with  new  intensity  ;  sacraments  and  ceremonies  were 
instituted  ;  and,  at  last,  the  New  Dispensation,  as 
the  highest  development  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  was 
proclaimed,  in  1880,  under  the  spiritual  and  intellec- 
tual leadership  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen. 

Ram  Comul  Sen,  the  grandfather  of  Keshub  Chun- 
der Sen,  was  a  remarkable  man.  He  was  born  in 
1783  and  died  in  1844.  The  second  son  of  a  poor 
man  who  lived  in  a  village  just  opposite  to  the  town 
of  Hooghly,  he  began  life  at  nineteen  years  of  age  as 
a  compositor,  and  up  to  his  thirty-sixth  year  had  at- 
tained no  higher  position  than  that  of  clerk  in  the 
Asiatic  Society.  The  distinguished  Orientalist,  Dr. 
H.  H.  Wilson,  recognized  his  talents  and  moral  worth, 
and  so  influenced  him  that  in  a  few  years  he  became 
the  native  head  of  the  Calcutta  Mint  and  Bank  of 
Bengal.  He  extended  his  education  as  he  rose  in 
social  position,  made  himself  a  very  fair  Sanscrit 
scholar,  spoke  and  wrote  English  remarkably  well, 
and  was  the  author  of  a  copious  and  accurate  Ben- 
gali and  English  Dictionary.  There  was  no  pub- 
lic and  important  movement  of  his  time  in  which  he 
was  not  an  active  worker.  In  a  score  of  learned  so- 
cieties and  local  committees  in  Calcutta  he  was  the 
guiding  spirit.  He  was  the  chief  leader  of  the  Hindu 
community  in  that  city,  and  an  adviser  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  Lord  William   Bentinck.     He  was  the 


108  ORIENT. 

founder  of  a  large  and  very  influential  family  in  Cal- 
cutta. A  strict  vegetarian,  he  cooked  his  own  meals 
at  the  end  of  the  day's  hard  work.  A  rigid  and  most 
devout  Vaishnavite,  he  was  the  author  of  a  collection 
of  prayers  exhibiting  profound  religious  instincts. 
("  Theistic  Quarterly  Review,"  January,  1881,  p. 
106.) 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  was  born  November  18, 
1838.  He  was  educated  at  the  Hindu  College  in 
Calcutta.  In  college,  although  at  first  fond  of  mathe- 
matics, he  devoted  himself  almost  exclusively  to  Eng- 
lish literature  and  mental  and  moral  philosophy.  He 
passed  four  years  in  collegiate  study,  but  is  not  a 
graduate  of  the  final  examinations  of  Calcutta  Uni- 
versity, which  was  established  only  two  years  before 
his  quadrennial  terminated.  He  became  an  active 
member  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj  about  1859.  His  de- 
vout character  and  his  eloquence  at  once  made  him 
a  leader.  He  visited  England  in  1870,  and  was  re- 
ceived with  distinguished  honor,  especially  by  the 
Unitarians,  and  was  introduced  to  the  Queen.  Two 
volumes  of  his  addresses  in  England  have  been  pub- 
lished at  Calcutta,  and  have  lately  been  followed  by 
a  third  volume,  containing  English  lectures  of  his  in 
India.  Besides  editing  a  weekly  religious  newspaper 
and  directing  the  instruction  of  theological  students 
and  various  religious  assistants,  he  preaches  often  to 
his  people  in  a  tabernacle  in  Calcutta,  and  once  a 
year  delivers,  in  the  great  Town  Hall  there,  to  an  im- 
mense assembly,  an  elaborate  oration  in  English  on 
some  point  of  faith  or  practice  connected  with  the 
religious  movement  he  represents  and  which  he  hopes 
to  make  national  in  its  influence. 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU  THEISM.      109 

Keshub  Cliunder  Sen  is  now  forty-five  years  old, 
and  is  by  far  the  most  interesting  religious  figure 
lately  produced  by  the  millions  of  Hindustan.  Many 
regard  him  as  nearly  or  quite  a  Christian,  and  others 
as  simply  a  fanatic  and  rhapsodical  dreamer,  anxious 
to  immortalize  himself.  Others  think  he  is  a  com- 
bination of  these  two  characters.  My  own  opinion 
concerning  him  was  made  up  very  slowly.  I  ob- 
tained, when  I  first  went  to  Calcutta,  everything  he 
bad  published,  and  in  a  very  few  days  was  honored 
by  interviews  with  some  of  his  leading  apostles,  as 
they  are  called,  and  was  invited  to  his  house.  I  had 
long  interviews  with  him,  which  I,  of  course,  have  no 
right  to  describe  in  public  in  detail.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  I  must  have  been  in  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  com- 
pany, at  different  times,  fifteen  or  twenty  crowded 
hours.  On  invitation,  I  made  an  expedition  with 
him  and  his  pupils  up  the  river  Hooghly,  and  he 
called  on  me  at  my  place  of  residence  in  Calcutta ; 
and  I  was  prepared,  with  written  questions  in  most 
cases,  to  examine  his  characteristic  views,  so  that  I 
feel,  after  a  study  of  all  he  has  published  and  after 
the  very  best  opportunities  to  meet  him  in  private, 
that  I  ought  to  understand  what  he  aims  at. 

Let  me  say,  once  for  all,  that  I  regard  it  as  indis- 
putable that  he  is  an  honest  man.  He  seems  to  me 
not  only  an  honest,  but  a  profoundly  devout  man,  of 
extraordinary  natural  equipment  in  the  intuitive  re- 
ligious faculties.  His  enemies  say  he  is  not  a  pro- 
found man,  and  some  of  them  call  him  even  a  shallow 
man.  Most  of  them  affirm  that  he  is  a  very  politic 
man,  and  that  he  is  ambitious  to  be  at  the  head  of  a 


110  ORIENT. 

new  religious  movement.  I  will  not  affirm  that  he  is 
a  Bacon,  or  a  Leibnitz,  or  a  Kant.  He  is  a  man  of 
the  Emerson  type,  powerful  in  the  intuitive,  rather 
than  in  the  analytical,  faculties.  It  was  Mr.  Burlin- 
game,  I  believe,  who  said  that  in  Asia  there  are  at 
least  ten  thousand  Emersons.  The  characteristic 
type  of  mind  in  India  is  the  intuitive,  and  not  the 
philosophical.  Mr.  Sen  speaks  through  his  lofty  moral 
feelings.  He  sees  religious  truths  through  his  con- 
science, rather  than  through  mere  reason.  All  his 
teaching  must  be  understood  from  the  point  of  view 
of  his  idiosyncrasies,  or  it  will  be  misunderstood  from 
the  outset.  He  is  not  an  Occidental ;  he  is  a  thor- 
ough Oriental,  and  feels  the  touch  of  God  within 
him,  as  the  Oriental  always  has  done  at  his  best. 
He  listens  to  the  Inner  Voice  with  the  devoutness  of 
one  of  the  best  of  the  Quaker  mystics.  He  instinc- 
tively believes  in  Providence.  He  is  perpetually  in- 
culcating the  duty  and  the  blessedness  of  prayer  and 
of  self-surrender  to  all  the  loftiest  impulses  of  con- 
science, which,  as  he  teaches,  are  really  supernatural 
touclies  of  God  upon  the  spirit  of  man. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  holds  a  certain  doctrine  of 
inspiration  which  has  often  startled  his  British  and 
American  readers.  He  believes  that,  at  certain  mo- 
ments, he  is  himself  inspired ;  but  after  cross  -  ex- 
amining him  again  and  again  on  this  theme,  I  am 
convinced  that  by  his  inspiration  he  means  very  little 
more  than  we  mean  by  illumination  of  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  or,  certainly,  not  more  than  the  Quaker 
mystics  have  meant  by  the  Inner  Light  and  the  In- 
terior Voice.      According  to  the  ritual  lately  sug- 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU  THEISM.      Ill 

gested  by  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  for  the  examination 
of  candidates  for  the  holy  order  of  missionaries  in 
his  theistic  organization,  the  candidate  is  asked : 
"Is  this  order  thine  own  choice  or  art  thou  called 
to  it  ?  "  The  candidate  answers :  "  Called."  "  By 
whom  ?  "  asks  the  minister.  "  By  the  Holy  Spirit." 
"  How  dost  thou  know  it  ?  "  The  reply  is  significant : 
"  My  best  impulses  and  aspirations  tend  in  this  direc- 
tion. My  ideas,  tastes,  and  capacities  are  all  adapted 
to  it.  My  whole  life  has  naturally  grown  into  it." 
In  Mr.  Sen's  divinity  school  it  is  taught  that  what 
genius  is  in  the  intellectual  world  inspiration  is  in 
the  religious.  It  is  an  occasional  divine  gift,  and 
one  that  is  sometimes  vouchsafed  even  in  our  day. 
When  I  put  to  Mr.  P.  C.  Mozumdar,  one  of  the  very 
ablest  of  Mr.  Sen's  coadjutors,  the  question:  "How 
does  Mr.  Sen  distinguish  with  certainty  and  precision 
the  subjective  from  the  objective  in  his  religious  ex- 
periences ;  that  is,  how  does  he  make  sure  that  any 
impression  which  he  calls  inspiration  is  not  from  his 
own  faculties,  but  really  from  God  himself  ?  "  the 
only  answer  was  :  "  That  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  re- 
ligious genius." 

Precisely  here  is  the  weakest  and  most  dangerous, 
and  yet  to  the  average  Hindu  mind  the  most  fasci- 
nating, part  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  claims  and  in- 
culcations. Without  pretending  to  offer  any  objec- 
tive proof  of  the  reality  of  his  inspiration,  he  does 
teach  unqualifiedly  the  very  startling  doctrine  that 
some  of  the  communications  which  come  to  him  in  his 
highest  moments  of  devotion  are  infallible.  He  grants, 
however,  that  the  reality  of  his  inspiration  must  be 


112  ORIENT. 

tested  by  the  accord  of  his  teachings  with  those  of 
every  inspired  authority  in  religion.  It  is  reassuring 
to  find  that  he  holds,  in  so  many  words,  that  the 
spirit  of  the  prophets  must  be  subject  to  the  prophets. 
He  regards  the  Christian  Scriptures  as  incomparably 
the  most  important  sacred  books  of  the  world.  Fa- 
miliar with  all  the  sacred  books  of  Asia,  he  and  his 
followers  find  only  in  the  Bible  that  which  satisfies 
their  deepest  spiritual  wants.  All  their  study  of  com- 
parative religions  brings  them  back  with  unabated 
hunger  and  enthusiasm  to  the  study  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures. 

Mr.  Sen  would  not  trust  any  inspiration  of  his  own 
that  should  seem  to  be  opposed  to  fundamental  bib- 
lical truth.  Nevertheless,  he  believes  that  supplemen- 
tary truth  may  be  discovered  through  prayer,  and 
that  it  has  been  revealed  to  him  that  a  new  dispensa- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  come  into  the  world  ;  and 
that  his  church,  which  is  named  the  Church  of  the 
New  Dispensation,  is  to  lead  tliis  movement ;  and 
that  it  is  to  unify  all  the  religions  of  the  earth,  — 
Christian,  Mohammedan,  and  Pagan,  —  so  far  as  they 
agree  with  the  inmost  voice  of  conscience.  This  is 
what  he  calls  revealed  theism,  as  distinguished  from 
rationalistic  theism,  or  mere  cold  deism,  which  he 
abhors. 

He  is  far  more  than  a  deist.  He  calls  Martineau 
and  Parker  cold.  He  cannot  tolerate  the  radical  and 
rationalistic  forms  of  Unitarianism,  although  it  has 
treated  him  with  the  utmost  courtesy.  There  was  a 
time  when  it  was  supposed  that  Mr.  Sen  would  be 
the  leader  of  a  reform  of  religion  in  India  and  make 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU  THEISM.      113 

his  new  creed  substantially  Unitarian  ;  but  I  asked 
Mr.  Sen,  point-blank:  "  What  do  you  think  of  Uni- 
tarianism  ?  "  His  answer  was  :  "  It  is  an  icicle.  I 
take  pains  to  call  myself  not  a  Unitarian  but  a  Uni- 
trinitarian."  What  does  he  mean  by  that  phrase  ? 
He  holds  a  certain  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Scholars 
in  theology  would  not  regard  it  as  altogether  a 
sound  one.  He  delivered  in  the  Town  Hall  in  Cal- 
cutta, just  before  I  visited  that  city,  a  really  re- 
markable address  on  "  That  Marvelous  Mystery  of 
the  Trinity."  But  when  I  came  to  examine  it  I 
found  that  it  would  not  bear  a  theological  analysis. 
It  was  not  Unitarianism,  however.  In  order  to  probe 
his  conviction,  I  put  to  him  this  question,  in  pres- 
ence of  his  theological  pupils :  "  Do  you  believe 
in  the  preexistence  of  Christ  ?  "  "  Yes,  as  a  divine 
attribute,"  was  the  answer,  which  is  not  orthodoxy. 
In  his  lecture  on  the  Trinity,  Mr.  Sen  goes  so  far  as 
to  say :  "  Even  the  coeternity  of  the  Son  with  the 
Father,  pure  theism  has  fearlessly  upheld  and  pro- 
claimed." As  explained  by  Babu  Mozumdar,  Mr. 
Sen's  chief  disciple,  this  language  means  only  that 
Christ  existed  from  eternity  in  the  thought  of  God  as 
a  part  of  the  divine  plan  for  the  future  good  of  man- 
kind. "The  future  Christ,  as  God  meant  to  create  him, 
was  the  seed  of  that  dispensation  yet  undeveloped. 
In  that  stage,  Christ  certainly  had  no  personality." 
("Theistic  Quarterly  Review,"  July,  1879,  p.  4.) 

As  his  very  loose  and  incorrect  use  of  theological 
terms  shows,  Mr.  Sen  has  not  had  a  thorough  theo- 
logical education.     I  was  amazed  to  find  that  he  had 
never  read  Canon  Liddon's  Lectures  on  the  Divinity 
8 


114  ORIENT. 

of  our  Lord,  and  I  gave  him  a  copy  of  the  book.  He 
does  not  much  believe  in  studying  books  of  theology. 
He  is,  as  I  think,  unjustly  charged  with  neglecting 
study  ;  but  he  does  not  regard  it  as  the  chief  means  of 
arriving  at  a  knowledge  of  religious  truth.  In  his  lec- 
ture on  the  question :  "  Am  I  an  Inspired  Prophet  ?  " 
he  said :  "  I  am  not  a  wise  man.  How  can  he 
who  scarcely  reads  two  books  in  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  days  be  reckoned  a  wise  or  a  learned  man  ? 
Yet  am  I  studious.  I  study  not  the  books  of  the 
West  nor  the  books  of  the  East,  but  the  vast  volume 
of  human  nature."  His  principle  is  to  lean  little  on 
the  intellect,  but  heavily  on  the  conscience  and  the 
whole  moral  nature  as  a  guide  in  religion.  He  is, 
however,  far  from  being  unbalanced  in  the  extreme 
sense  of  the  mystic  who  believes  only  in  the  moral 
feelings. 

He  has  sound,  rounded  sense,  or  he  could  not  be 
the  orator  he  is.  He  is  an  orator  born,  not  made.  He 
has  a  splendid  physique,  excellent  quality  of  organi- 
zation, capacity  of  sudden  heat  and  of  tremendous  im- 
petuosity, and  lightning-like  swiftness  of  thought  and 
expression,  combined  with  a  most  iron  self-control. 
You  cannot  throw  him  off  his  balance  before  any 
audience,  with  a  manuscript  or  without  one.  He  is 
unquestionably  the  most  eloquent  Asiatic  I  ever  heard. 
He  speaks  English  as  perfectly  as  any  man  in  this 
assembly  ;  he  seems  to  have  learned  it  from  the  pages 
of  Addison  or  Macaulay,  and  not  from  colloquial 
usage.  His  English  is  extremely  pure,  and  is  pro- 
nounced without  the  slightest  foreign  accent.  Six 
feet  in  height,  with  bronze  complexion  and  quite  reg- 


KESHUB    CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU   THEISM.       115 

ular  features,  he  is  a  commanding  figure,  in  his 
Asiatic  costume,  whether  seen  in  public  or  in  private. 
As  you  may  see  from  his  portrait,  which  I  hold  in  my 
hand,  he  has  the  oratorical  temperament ;  his  lips, 
cheeks,  forehead,  eyes,  and  whole  form  proclaim  this. 
But  he  is  not  a  philosopher,  I  am  sorry  to  say ;  and 
so  he  does  sometimes  drop  into  rhapsody,  and  his 
moral  feelings  carry  him  away.  He  seems  to  lack 
balance  occasionally,  and  so  draws  down  upon  himself 
severe  criticism  at  times.  In  spite  of  all  this,  how- 
ever, I  think  him  one  of  the  most  devout  Asiatics  I 
have  seen,  and  undoubtedly  a  man  of  intellectual  as 
well  as  of  religious  genius,  but  chiefly  strong  in  the 
latter.  He  usually  fascinates  every  one  who  comes 
near  him,  and  he  has  a  strange  ascendency  over  his 
immediate  followers,  several  of  whom  are  men  of 
high  intellectual  endowments  and  finished  education. 
In  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  house  what  happens  ? 
How  does  he  instruct  his  theological  students?  He 
has  a  theological  school,  quite  well  patronized,  and  I 
have  here  on  the  table  several  of  the  examination- 
papers  used  in  it.  They  include  many  Christian 
books,  and  the  questions  are  very  keen  on  the  topics 
of  Providence  and  prayer  and  inspiration.  In  his 
own  dwelling,  the  Lily  Cottage,  on  Circular  Road, 
in  Calcutta,  —  a  mansion  with  deep  verandas  on  both 
lower  and  upper  stories,  and  standing  in  large,  open 
grounds,  among  graceful  and  stately  palms,  —  he  has 
what  he  calls  a  sanctuary.  I  must  introduce  you  to 
this  holy  of  holies  of  Mr.  Sen's  home,  if  you  are  to 
understand  this  theistic  reformer  of  India.  He 
showed  the  room  to  me  with  a  manner  of  intense 


116  ORIENT. 

reverence  for  it,  and  I  willingly  regarded  it  as  a  sa- 
cred place,  for  here  I  saw  revealed  the  very  heart  of 
natural  religion,  as  understood  by  a  man  of  high  re- 
ligious genius,  outside  the  pale  of  Christianity. 

Mr.  Sen  meets  his  theological  pupils  and  his  chief 
religious  associates  in  his  sanctuary  nearly  every 
day  except  Sunday,  when  he  is  usually  engaged  in 
preaching  at  his  tabernacle.  The  room  is  fitted  up 
in  Asiatic  style.  He  has  a  little  platform,  not  more 
than  three  or  four  inches  high,  on  which  he  is  seated 
in  the  Asiatic  manner.  There  are  mats  scattered 
about  the  floor  for  the  seats  of  pupils  and  apostles. 
Musical  instruments  stand  in  the  different  corners, 
—  not  elaborate  instruments,  but  of  the  simple  an- 
cient Hindu  patterns,  sometimes  one-stringed  lyres, 
such  as  the  Rishis^  or  Hindu  saints  and  recluses, 
were  accustomed  to  use  in  their  meditations  in  the 
solitudes  of  the  Himalayas.  After  music,  Mr.  Sen, 
seated  on  this  platform,  enters  into  a  very  long 
prayer.  His  pupils  and  followers  devoutly  believe 
that  in  the  best  parts  of  his  prayer  he  is  inspired. 
They  note  carefully  not  merely  his  language,  but  his 
intonations.  When  the  divine  afflatus  seems  to  come 
to  him  in  his  devotions,  they  feel  that  they  are  com- 
muning, through  him,  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
actually  believe  this,  and  are  correspondingly  solem- 
nized. They  hold  in  reverence,  however,  not  the  or- 
gan, but  the  divine  influence  that  plays  through  it. 

You  might  easily  be  misled  by  the  manner  of  some 
of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  students  toward  him.  I 
have  been  seated  in  his  presence  when  one  of  his  fore- 
most followers  came  into  the  room,  and  immediately 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU  THEISM.      117 

bowed  down  and  kissed  Mr.  Sen's  feet.  Mr.  Sen  has 
been  accused  over  and  over  again  of  allowing  per- 
sonal homage  ;  but  kissing  of  the  feet  is  a  courtesy- 
some  missionaries  have  experienced.  The  disthi- 
guished  American  missionary,  Dr.  Thoburn,  of  Cal- 
cutta, said  to  me  that  he  frequently  had  been  obliged 
to  treat  a  little  sternly  Asiatics  who  had  offered  to 
kiss  his  feet  with  an  appearance  of  personal  homage. 
It  is  not,  in  Asia,  understood  that  you  regard  a  man 
as  divine  because  you  kiss  his  feet,  for  that  is  one  of 
the  forms  of  exhibiting  extreme  reverence.  I  have 
seen  Mr.  Sen's  feet  kissed,  and  I  have  seen  him 
anathematized  in  English  papers  for  allowing  per- 
sonal homage.  It  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  a 
dangerous  freedom  for  him  to  permit  this  form  of 
salutation  outside  of  unmixed  Hindu  circles,  where 
the  ceremony  is  understood. 

After  more  music,  perhaps  Mr.  Sen  offers  another 
long  prayer,  or  some  other  teacher  of  peculiarly 
devout  temperament  offers  another,  or  several  do 
this.  It  is  believed  when  these  prayers  agree,  all 
the  apostles  seeming  to  be  moved  in  the  same  way, 
that  an  infallible  truth  is  revealed.  They  insist 
on  that  word  "infallible."  They  affirm  that  inspi- 
ration is  a  gift  of  our  day,  and  that  when  two  or 
three  are  met  together,  as  Christians  say,  or  when 
a  worshiping  circle  is  formed  in  the  Hindu  fash- 
ion, and  prayers  are  found  to  agree  in  the  im- 
pulses they  leave  upon  genuinely  devout  hearts,  it 
must  be  believed  that  God  is  in  those  impulses. 
There  is  a  poet  and  musician  of  high  rank  usually 
present  at  these  devotions.     Filled  with  the  spirit  of 


118  ORIENT. 

the  religious  exercises,  which  continue  sometimes 
four  or  live  hours,  and  this  several  days  in  the  week, 
this  poet  comes  forward  at  the  close  of  the  prayers 
and,  striking  his  harp,  extemporizes  a  hymn.  His 
rapt  words  are  most  carefully  taken  down  by  a  ste- 
nographer ;  the  poet  is  allowed  to  correct  the  record ; 
and  thus  have  come  into  the  possession  of  the  Church 
of  the  New  Dispensation,  so  called,  more  than  a  thou- 
sand original  Hindu  hymns.  Mr.  Sen's  followers 
believe  that  these  are  in  some  sense  inspired.  They 
found  their  church  upon  the  doctrines  gathered  thus 
out  of  the  mountain-tops  of  devotion.  If  you  go  to 
them  and  say  that  they  ought  to  look  into  Julius 
Miiller's  theology,  or  Canon  Liddon  on  the  Divinity 
of  our  Lord,  or  seek  a  knowledge  of  religious  doctrine 
by  the  study  of  systematic  intellectual  presentations 
of  religious  truth,  they  are  likely  to  treat  you  with 
much  pity  and  scorn.  They  say  :  "  Yes,  indeed,  that 
is  what  the  theologians  of  the  West  do.  They  study 
and  do  not  pray.  We  depend  for  light  on  a  direct 
,gaze  into  God's  face."  "  What  we  mean  to  say  is, 
that  our  doctrine  and  principles  of  faith  and  practice 
are  not  derived  by  processes  of  reasoning,  but  excited 
in  our  hearts  by  prayer  and  inner  experiences,  so 
that  we  cannot  but  view  them  as  directly  dispensed 
unto  us  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  For  a  long  time  the 
Brahmo  Somaj  has  ceased  to  believe  in  reason  as  the 
source  of  religion,  and  professed  to  look  up  to  God 
for  the  direct  revelation  of  truth  in  the  soul.  The 
Brahmo  Somaj  has  always  held  the  faculty  of  faith 
to  be  the  organ  for  the  discernment  of  spiritual  reali- 
ties, and  assigned  in  such  matters  a  subordinate  place 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN  AND   HINDU  THEISM.      119 

to  reason."  ("  The  Liberal  and  the  New  Dispen- 
sation," Mr.  Sen's  newspaper,  Calcutta,  May  14, 
1882.)  "  The  New  Dispensation  is  very  different 
from  what  is  known  as  Deism.  It  is  also  very  differ- 
ent from  that  order  of  Theism  which  is  only  another 
name  for  natural  religion.  This  may  be  called  Ra- 
tionalistic Theism^  and  is  legitimately  assailable  by 
philosophy.  The  religion  of  the  New  Dispensation  is 
Revealed  Theism^  the  deep  spiritual  religion  produced 
in  the  soul  by  the  direct  contact  and  manifestations 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  history  of  man's  soul  and 
the  life  of  the  community  called  together  by  that 
Spirit."     (Ibid.  July  30,  1882.) 

In  the  religious  services  in  the  tabernacle,  where 
Mr.  Sen,  when  his  health  permits,  presides,  there  is  a 
most  impressive  ceremony,  in  which  the  whole  con- 
gregation stand  up  and  petition  God  for  light.  There 
is  then  a  silence  of  several  minutes,  the  whole  of  it 
occupied,  presumably,  in  secret  devotion.  Every 
member  of  this  church  of  the  New  Dispensation 
seems  to  be  a  man  of  prayer.  Remember  that  these 
persons  do  not  profess  to  be  Christians.  They  say 
little  against  Christianity.  Except  by  asserting  the 
sufficiency  of  his  form  of  theism,  I  could  not  find 
that  Mr.  Sen  ever  says  a  word  against  Christianity. 
He  is  an  eclectic.  He  wishes  to  absorb  into  his  sys- 
tem of  faith  and  practice  all  those  parts  of  Christian- 
ity that  can  be  made  to  accord  with  his  theistic  prin- 
ciples. In  moving  the  vote  of  thanks  in  the  Town 
Hall  at  the  close  of  a  course  of  lectures  which  I  had 
the  honor  to  give  in  Calcutta,  Mr.  Sen  said  that  In- 
dia is  ruled  by  Christ.     On  another  occasion,  in  that 


120  ORIENT. 

massive  audience  chamber,  holding  more  than  3,000 
people,  he  said :  "  The  crown  of  India  does  not  be- 
long to  Great  Britain.  It  belongs  only  to  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord."  He  is  almost  constantly  advanc- 
ing propositions  that  are  nearly  Christian  in  tone, 
and  yet  at  frequent  intervals  he  puts  forward  views 
which  too  closely  resemble  mere  Hinduism.  At  times 
he  exclaims :  *'  Blessed  Jesus,  I  am  thine.  I  give 
myself,  body  and  soul,  to  thee.  Let  India  revile  and 
persecute  me  and  take  my  life-blood  out  of  me,  drop 
by  drop,  still  thou  shalt  continue  to  have  my  hom- 
age." But  almost  in  the  same  address  he  can  say : 
"  Christ's  dispensation  is  said  to  be  divine.  I  say 
that  this  dispensation,  the  Brahmo  Somaj,  is  equally 
divine." 

He  has  introduced  into  his  church  several  ceremo- 
nies imitated  from  old  Hindu  practices.  There  is 
great  reverence  for  fire  among  many  Oriental  sects, 
and  Mr.  Sen  has  endeavored  to  transmute  one  of  the 
old  ceremonies,  in  which  the  use  of  fire  is  very  promi- 
nent, into  an  impressive  theistic  symbol.  He  brings 
before  his  worshiping  audience  a  vessel  of  metal  filled 
with  oil,  and  places  at  its  side  sticks  of  scented  wood. 
He  hghts  the  oil  and  takes  the  wood,  and,  before  the 
whole  congregation,  throws  it,  stick  by  stick,  into  the 
flames,  saying  :  "  Thus  perish  our  lust,  our  pride,  our 
worldliness,  our  unjust  anger,  all  our  divergencies 
from  God."  The  ceremony  is  exceedingly  impres- 
sive, for  at  the  end  of  it  the  congregation  cries  out 
repeatedly,  "  Victory  to  God ! "  and  then  he  pro- 
nounces over  them,  or  invokes  upon  them,  the  bene- 
diction :  "  Peace,  peace ! "    Several  ceremonies  of  this 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN    AND   HINDU   THEISM.       121 

kind,  introduced  by  him,  with  slight  changes  from 
the  old  Hindu  ways,  appear  to  be  intended  to  con- 
ciliate Hindus.  Some  of  his  ceremonies  are  open  to 
criticism.  For  instance,  he  has  introduced  the  drama 
and  theatrical  performances,  to  show  the  progress  of 
the  sinner  from  a  state  of  rebellion  against  God  into 
a  state  of  complete  union  with  him.  He  employs  in 
his  own  house,  sometimes  in  a  room  adjacent  to  the 
sanctuary,  theatrical  exercises,  to  illustrate  religious 
truths.  He  has  dances,  which  he  calls  sacred,  imi- 
tated from  Hindu  customs.  The  criticism  which  many 
acute  missionaries  make  upon  him  is  that  his  com- 
posite set  of  ceremonies  and  religious  doctrines  has 
in  it  so  many  appeals  to  ancient  Hindu  prejudices 
that  it  can  never  lead  the  mass  of  the  Hindu  popu- 
lations out  of  their  attachments  to  hereditary  mis- 
beliefs. Mr.  Sen  replies  that  he  is  anxious  only  that 
Christian  truth  should  be  presented  to  India  in  an 
Oriental  dress,  and  that  there  should  be  something 
national  left  in  the  religion  of  Hindustan. 

Mr.  Sen  has  been  greatly  blamed  for  allowing  a 
daughter  of  his  to  be  married  to  a  wealthy  Hindu 
prince  before  she  had  attained  the  age  which  he  him- 
self had  fixed  as  the  least  th^t  should  be  insisted  on 
in  the  reform  of  child  marriages  in  India.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  less  progressive  part  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj,  from  which  the  church  of  the  New  Dispensa- 
tion is  a  secession,  were  especially  bitter  in  their 
charges  against  Mr.  Sen  in  regard  to  this  marriage. 
He  and  his  friends,  however,  as  well  as  the  most  in- 
telligent British  and  American  residents  of  Calcutta 
whom  I  met,  assert  that  only  a  betrothal  and  not  a 


122  ORIENT. 

marriage  took  place  before  the  proper  age  had  been 
reached  by  the  parties,  and  that  the  accepted  Brahmo 
principles  were  really  not  violated  in  spirit  and  hardly 
in  form  in  this  case. 

At  the  centre  of  the  whole  theistic  movement  un- 
der Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  however  he  may  be  praised 
or  blamed,  are  the  sanctuary  which  I  have  described, 
and  himself  in  communion  with  God,  and  the  impulse 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  revealed  through  the  individual 
consciences  of  his  associates  in  worship. 

What  are  the  merits  of  the  theistic  movement  of 
India,  and  especially  of  the  church  of  the  New  Dis- 
pensation, as  led  by  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  ? 

1.  It  unflinchingly  opposes  caste  and  idolatry. 

2.  It  rejects  utterly  the  hereditary  misbeliefs  of 
Hinduism  as  to  transmigration  of  souls,  the  infalli- 
bility of  the  Vedas,  and  the  spiritual  worth  of  ascetic 
practices. 

3.  It  is  in  deadly  hostility  to  child  marriages,  as  it 
was  to  the  burning  of  widows,  the  exposure  of  the 
<aged  to  death  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  and  other 
familiar  abuses  fostered  by  Hinduism. 

4.  It  supports  most  vigorously  the  causes  of  educa- 
tion, temperance,  and  all  philanthropic  reform. 

5.  It  is  utterly  opposed  to  materialism,  atheism,  ag- 
nosticism, and  every  form  of  mere  deism. 

6.  It  asserts  an  ethical  monotheism,  the  fact  of  a 
supernatural  Providence,  and  the  duty  and  blessed- 
ness of  prayer  and  of  total  self-surrender  to  God. 

7.  It  adopts  from  Christianity  whatever  it  can  rec- 
oncile with  its  theistic  principles,  and  regards  the 
Scriptures  as  the  most  important  of  the  sacred  books 
in  use  among  men. 


KESHUB   CHUNDER    SEN  AND   HINDU   THEISM.       123 

8.  It  seeks,  on  these  positions  as  a  basis,  a  real  and 
formal  union  of  all  the  religious  sects  of  every  nation 
in  the  Christian,  the  Mohammedan,  and  the  pagan 
world. 

What  are  the  defects  of  the  church  of  the  New 
Dispensation  ? 

1.  It  teaches  no  effective  method  of  delivering  men 
from  the  guilt  of  sin. 

2.  It  has  not  exhibited  power  to  deliver  men  thor- 
oughly from  the  love  of  sin.  It  has  never  yet  brought 
men  in  large  numbers  and  of  ordinary  education  into 
a  spiritually  regenerate  state.  It  possesses,  in  short, 
no  trustworthy  doctrine  of  the  New  Birth,  nor  of  the 
Atonement,  and  so  lacks  religious  efficacy  in  the 
points  of  transcendent  moment.  It  is  hence  weak, 
both  as  a  religion  and  as  a  philosophy.  In  practice, 
its  effects,  as  compared  with  those  of  Christianity, 
are  very  inconsiderable,  and  likely  to  remain  so. 

3.  It  adopts  self-contradictory  principles  in  its  at- 
tempts to  reconcile  the  various  religions  of  the  world. 
Its  eclecticism  is  sometimes  so  broad  and  inclusive  as 
to  become  explosive. 

4.  It  carries  its  doctrine  of  inspiration  to  the  verge 
of  fanaticism.  Wholly  without  objective  proof  of  the 
reality  of  this  inspiration,  the  church  of  the  New 
Dispensation  claims  to  have  received  through  its 
leader  an  infallible  revelation  for  our  day.  This  claim 
is  as  mischievous  as  it  is  untenable,  and,  if  pushed,  is 
likely  to  ruin  the  reputation  of  the  movement  with 
serious  and  well-educated  men,  not  only  in  the  West, 
but  also  in  India  itself. 

5.  Theism,  in  its  devoutest  and  most  scholarly  form, 


124  ORIENT. 

is  simply  a  torso,  of  which  Christianity  is  the  neces- 
sary completion.  A  scientific  doctrine  of  conscience, 
or  a  profoundly  spiritual  life,  points  to  the  necessity 
of  man's  deliverance  not  merely  from  the  love  of  sin, 
but  also  from  the  guilt  of  it.  Theism  alone,  however, 
without  aid  from  Christianity,  has  never  been  able  to 
effect  for  man  this  double  deliverance.  Only  Chris- 
tianity, with  its  fathomless  truths  concerning  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  New  Birth  and  of  the  Atonement,  can 
do  this.  To  set  up  theism,  even  its  best  form,  as 
a  rival  to  Christianity,  is  to  prefer  the  torso  to  the 
whole  figure,  or  the  vestibule  to  the  temple. 

As  compared  with  the  immense  population  of  India, 
the  number  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen's  followers  is 
as  yet  exceedingly  small.  Something  less  than  two 
hundred  societies,  with  from  fifty  to  an  hundred  mem- 
bers in  each,  include  them  all.  The  weekly  audience 
in  his  tabernacle  at  Calcutta  numbers  only  about 
three  hundred.  There  are  twenty-four  Brahmo  mis- 
sionaries, who  act  without  salary  and  are  supported 
by  the  income  derived  by  the  mission  office  from  the 
sale  of  Brahmo  publications,  from  contributions,  and 
various  collections.  Mr.  Sen  presides  with  almost 
autocratic  spiritual  authority  over  this  body  of  mis- 
sionaries. ("  Faith  and  Progress  of  the  Brahmo  So- 
ciety," by  P.  C.  Mozumdar,  1882.) 

Among  the  opponents  and  rivals  of  pure  theism 
in  India  there  should  be  noticed  the  Theosophists 
of  Bombay.  Their  creed  is  a  singular  compound  of 
Hindu  occult  science  with  Occidental  forms  of  spir- 
itism, materialism,  and  atheism.  It  is  vehemently 
anti-Christian  at  every  point.     The  Theosophists  are 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN    AND    HINDU   THEISM.      125 

led  by  two  American  adventurers  —  Colonel  Olcott 
and  Madame  Blavatsky.  When  I  was  in  Bombay, 
there  came  to  that  city  an  American  infidel,  only  re- 
cently imprisoned  at  Albany  for  infamous  crime.  He 
was  the  editor  of  perhaps  the  foremost  infidel  news- 
paper rag  of  this  continent,  —  a  sheet  which  I  hope 
very  few  of  you  ever  see  and  which  deserves  to  be 
handled  only  with  the  tongs.  Tliis  man  was  on  trial 
a  few  years  ago  for  distributing  infamous  literature 
through  the  mails,  and,  under  our  righteous  Ameri- 
can enactments  as  to  that  black  crime,  was  sent  to 
the  Albany  penitentiary  for  several  months.  When 
he  left  prison,  "  Scribner's  Monthly  "  published  an 
account  of  him,  and  the  title  of  the  article  was  "  The 
Apotheosis  of  Dirt."  When  he  came  to  Bombay  he 
was  received  with  open  arms  by  the  Theosophists, 
put  on  their  platforms,  and  furnished  with  the  very 
best  opportunities  to  attack  Christianity  in  all  its  as- 
pects. India  thus  came  to  understand  the  Theoso- 
phists, for  they  knew  what  the  career  of  this  infidel 
editor  had  been,  and  yet  locked  hands  with  him  in 
ostentatious  public  attacks  on  Christianity.  The 
Theosophists  were  boasting  that  they  had  drawn 
hundreds  of  pupils  out  of  the  missionary  schools.  All 
their  documents  show  that  one  of  their  foremost  ob- 
jects is  to  injure  the  progress  of  Christian  missions. 
As  the  public  of  India  was  not  acquainted  with  Amer- 
ican vulgar  infidelity,  I  thought  it  my  dufy  to  ex- 
pose the  career  of  this  jail-bird,  and  I  did  so.  The 
man  came  to  one  of  my  last  lectures,  carrying  under 
his  coat  a  horsewhip,  which  he  did  not  use  !  He  ob- 
tained almost  no  hearing  in  Bombay.     I  was  assured 


126  ORIENT. 

that  he  drew  several  hundred  pupils  out  of  mission- 
ary schools  in  Ceylon.  He  had  few  to  listen  to  him 
in  Japan.  I  heard  of  his  great  disappointments  in 
San  Francisco  ;  but,  nevertheless,  in  every  city  where 
he  went  he  was  received  with  open  arms  by  small 
coteries  of  atheistic  or  spiritistic  circles,  and  by  those 
uneasy  classes  represented  by  the  secular  unions  and 
liberal  infidel  leagues  in  Great  Britain  and  in  this 
country.  I  found  these  people  in  various  parts  of 
the  world  reading  almost  the  same  literature  and 
feeding  themselves  with  the  same  atrociously  unfair 
intellectual  discussions.  Men  are  measured  by  their 
reading,  their  heroes,  and  their  pet  measures.  Bishop 
Huntington  has  said  lately  that  we  need  not  greatly 
fear  any  skeptical  movement  that  we  cannot  intel- 
lectually respect.  The  last  news  from  the  American 
leaders  of  the  Theosophists  of  India  is  that  they 
have  emigrated  from  Bombay,  and  have  been  una- 
ble to  obtain  any  pleasant  footing  in  Calcutta,  and 
so  have  gone  to  Madras,  which  all  through  India  is 
called  the  benighted  presidency. 

Mr.  Sinnett's  "  Esoteric  Buddhism  "  has  attracted 
much  attention  in  England  and  the  United  States 
among  people  who  have  read  with  admiration  Ed- 
win Arnold's  "Light  of  Asia,"  and  who  are  too  little 
acquainted  with  the  East  to  perceive  that  this  light 
is  twilight.  Mr.  Sinnett  is  now  known  to  have  been 
one  of  Madame  Blavatsky's  dupes.  By  the  revela- 
tions of  an  assistant  of  hers  in  Madras,  Madame 
Blavatsky,  author  of  "  Isis  Unveiled,"  has  been 
proved  to  be  a  charlatan  of  the  most  audacious  kind. 
Sliding  panels  in  doors,  and  various  other  mechan- 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU  THEISM.      127 

ical  arrangements  for  producing  portents,  have  been 
discovered  in  her  official  rooms  at  Madras,  and  her 
career  as  an  impostor  is  ended. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  is  a  most  vigorous  opponent 
of  theosophy  and  spiritism,  as  well  as  of  agnosticism 
and  materialism,  although  he  has  a  brother  who  is 
reputed  to  be  a  spiritualist.  Mr.  Sen  is  the  editor  of 
a  really  able  English  paper,  called  ''  The  Liberal,"  and 
in  it  he  has  frequent  passages  of  his  own,  which  for 
devotional  depth  are  not  often  surpassed  by  our  best 
religious  literature. 

Conversing  once  with  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  I 
happened  to  use  the  rather  strange  English  words 
theoscopy  and  theopathy^  as  I  was  emphasizing  the 
scientific  fact  that  natural  laws  are  only  the  habits  of 
God,  and  so  ought  to  give  us  a  constant  sense  of 
his  omnipresence.  Whatever  gives  a  vision  of  God 
prompts  to  total,  affectionate,  irreversible  self-surren- 
der to  Him.  That  surrender  itself,  more  than  any 
other  natural  cause  known  to  man,  gives  a  new  and 
inner  sense  of  the  Divine  Presence,  and  so  theoscopy, 
or  the  seeing  of  Grod,  leads  to  theopathy,  or  similarity 
of  feeling  with  God,  Mr.  Sen  grasped  my  hand  with 
a  sudden,  impulsive  gesture,  and  said  that  these  two 
words  expressed  ideas  which  lie  at  the  very  centre  of 
his  own  system  of  religious  faith  and  practice,  and 
were  infinitely  dearer  to  him  than  life  itself.  They 
are  by  no  means  the  whole  of  Christianity,  however, 
but  only  one  of  the  glorious  vestibules  to  it. 

In  order  to  show  how  grand  a  temple  the  flaming 
Hindu  soul  can  make  of  a  mere  vestibule,  I  quote  the 
whole  of  one  of  the  familiar  sermons  of  Babu  P.  C. 


128  ORIENT. 

Mozumdar  to  his  people,  as  given  in  his  own  trans- 
lation from  Bengali  (''  The  Liberal,"  Oct.  8,  1882). 
Bhakti  and  Yoga,  which  this  sermon  discusses,  may, 
perhaps,  be  translated  as  Intense  Love  for  God,  and 
Communion  with  God.  The  impassioned  style  of 
this  address  reveals  the  genuineness  of  the  spiritual 
emotions  which  prompted  it,  and  unveils  the  most 
characteristic  and  valuable  part  of  the  religious  dis- 
cipline of  the  church  of  the  New  Dispensation. 

YOGA,  OR   COMMUNION  WITH  GOD. 

\Translated from  Bengali.^ 
Sermon,  Sunday,  September  24th,  1883. 
Like  my  Bhakti,  my  Yoga  is  also  an  acquired  virtue.  I 
was  not  a  Yogee  when  I  began  my  religious  life.  I  did 
not  know  what  Yoga  was,  had  never  heard  its  name,  and  I 
never  thought  that  I  should  have  to  walk  in  this  path  at 
any  time.  My  only  aspiration  was  to  become  thoroughly 
pure,  to  reform  my  character,  and  to  submit  completely  to 
the  will  of  God.  This  was  my  sole  religion,  and  I  never 
thought  that  there  was  anything  like  Yoga  that  should 
torm  a  part  of  it.  Thus  did  I  pass  the  first  fifteen  years 
of  my  religious  life,  when,  by  the  grace  of  God,  my  heart 
began  to  be  filled  with  Bhakti.  This  Bhakti  grew  to  mad- 
ness in  course  of  time,  and  I  felt,  at  last,  that  it  was 
essentially  necessary  for  me  to  cultivate  Yoga  to  make  my 
Bhakti  lasting.  The  madness  of  love  seemed  to  be  very 
transitory,  and  it  appeared  to  me  that  nothing  but  Yoga 
could  keep  the  fire  burning  in  me.  I  felt  that,  as  I  believed 
in  God,  I  should  be  one  with  Him ;  as  my  heart  swelled 
with  his  love,  my  eyes  should  behold  Him  constantly.  But 
Yoga  was  quite  unknown  in  the  Brahmo  Somaj  at  that  time. 
Thousands  of  people  were  drawn  toward  Bhakti,  its  influ- 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU   THEISM.        129 

ence  was  felt  throughout  the  whole  community,  but  people 
were  very  slow  to  appreciate  the  merits  of  Yoga.  The  fire 
of  Bhakti  easily  spreads  itself  and  catches  the  hearts  of 
many ;  but  Yoga  attracts  very  few  toward  it,  as  it  is  very 
difficult  to  understand  and  hard  to  cultivate.  In  hundreds 
of  years  you  will  find  but  a  handful  of  men  devoted  to  its 
cultivation.  Therefore,  though  I  became  a  staunch  votary 
of  Yoga,  my  friends  did  not  follow  it.  I  understood  that 
life  was  not  worth  having  if  I  were  not  one  with  my  Divine 
Father.  No  precepts  or  scriptures  taught  me  this  truth ;  I 
did  not  read  of  Yoga  in  any  book ;  as  the  grace  of  God  de- 
scended in  my  heart  in  the  shape  of  Bhakti,  so  did  the  wind 
of  Yoga  blow  into  my  soul  and  I  knew  not  whence  it  came. 
From  two  sides  did  these  two  things  descend  upon  me  as 
blessings  of  Heaven.  Bhakti  sweetened  my  Yoga  and  Yoga 
sanctified  my  Bhakti.  They  were  twin  brother  and  sister. 
Yoga  without  Bhakti  ends  in  pantheism,  and  Bhakti  without 
Yoga  terminates  in  superstition.  But  in  my  life  the  rocks 
of  Yoga  are  adorned  with  the  beautiful  gardens  of  Bhakti. 
"When  I  open  my  eyes,  I  behold  the  God  of  Yoga  with  one 
eye,  and  the  God  of  Bhakti  with  the  other.  I  see  my  God 
in  everything  —  in  fruit  and  tree,  in  sun  and  moon,  in  air 
and  light,  and  in  fire  and  water.  He  is  to  me  True  and  at 
the  same  time  Beautiful.  Where  I  saw  earth  and  cfey  be- 
fore, there  I  see  my  God  now.  I  did  not  practice  any  aus- 
terities to  attain  this  God- Vision.  I  opened  my  eyes,  and 
saw  my  Father  everywhere  and  in  everything.  This  is  true 
Yoga.  Whenever  I  look  around  me,  I  see  the  burning 
presence  of  my  God  —  his  infinite  force  filling  every  cre- 
ated being,  his  wisdom  manifest  in  the  whole  universe,  and 
his  heavenly  love  embracing  all  creatures.  This  vision  was 
not  the  result  of  much  reading  or  learning,  but  it  was  a  gift 
of  Heaven.  I  did  not  realize  this  in  the  beginning  of  my 
religious  life ;  but  now  the  fire  of  Divine  Presence  burns  in 
and  around  me  with  infinite  force,  and,  like  a  strong  wind, 
9 


130  ORIENT. 

his  Presence  touches  my  whole  frame.  My  Yoga  began  to 
be  deeper  and  deeper  day  by  day,  and  now  I  am  immerged 
into  it  day  and  night.  I  am  not  without  Him  even  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  I  cannot  imagine  how  at  one  time  I  was  a  stranger 
to  this  state.  You  may  doubt  my  existence ;  but  you  can- 
not doubt,  in  the  least,  the  existence  of  God,  who  dwells  in 
me.  He  is  one  with  me.  I  need  not  offer  you  proofs  of 
his  existence.  If  you  see  me,  you  will  see  Him  also.  You 
cannot  deny  the  one  and  accept  the  other.  God  will  be 
manifest  to  you  as  a  thing  —  a  person.  I  do  not  believe  in 
the  God  of  books.  I  believe  in  Him  only  whom  I  see  with 
my  own  eyes.  Brethren,  do  not  believe  in  the  God  of  im- 
agination ;  be  a  Yogee  and  a  Bhakti,  and  all  your  wants 
will  be  removed.  Where  I  have  seen  Him  you  will  see 
Him  also.     Despair  not. 

The  best  description  of  the  faitb  and  practice  of 
the  followers  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  is  found  in  the 
words  of  the  ritual  prepared  by  himself  for  the  cere- 
mony of  the  initiation  of  a  new  member  in  his  The- 
istic  Society. 

On  the  presentation  of  the  candidate  the  minister  shall 
thus  interrogate  him  :  — 

Dost  thou  know  and  believe  in  the  essential  principles  of 
the  New  Dispensation  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.  Art  thou  called  by  the  Lord  to  join  his 
church  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.  Art  thou  resolved  to  submit  to  the  discipline 
of  the  church  and  to  bear  witness  unto  the  truth  in  thy 
daily  life  ? 

Candidate.     Yes  ;  so  help  me  God. 

Minister.  Dost  thou  believe  that  God  is  one,  that  He  is 
infinite  and  perfect,  almighty,  all-wise,  all-merciful,  all-holy, 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN    AND   HINDU   THEISM.       131 

all-blissful,  eternal,  and  omnipresent,  our  Creator,  Father, 
Mother,  Friend,  Guide,  Judge  and  Saviour  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.  Dost  thou  believe  that  the  soul  is  immortal 
and  eternally  progressive  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.  Dost  thou  believe  in  God's  moral  law  as  re- 
vealed through  the  commandments  of  conscience,  enjoining 
perfect  righteousness  in  all  things  ?  Dost  thou  believe  that 
thou  art  accountable  to  God  for  the  faithful  discharge  of 
thy  manifold  duties,  and  that  thou  shalt  be  judged  and  re- 
warded and  punished  for  thy  virtues  and  vices  here  and 
hereafter  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.  Dost  thou  believe  in  the  Church  Universal, 
which  is  the  deposit  of  all  ancient  wisdom  and  the  recepta- 
cle of  all  modern  science ;  which  recognizes  in  all  prophets 
and  saints  a  harmony,  in  all  scriptures  a  unity,  and  through 
all  dispensations  a  continuity ;  which  abjures  all  that  sepa- 
rates and  divides,  and  always  magnifies  unity  and  peace ; 
which  harmonizes  reason  and  faith,  yoga  and  bhakti,  asceti- 
cism and  social  duty  in  their  highest  forms ;  and  which  shall 
make  of  all  nations  and  sects  one  kingdom  and  one  family 
in  the  fullness  of  time  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.  Dost  thou  believe  in  natural  inspiration,  gen- 
eral and  special  ?  Dost  thou  believe  in  providence,  general 
and  special  ? 

Candidate.     Yes. 

Minister.     Dost  thou  accept  and  revere  the  Scriptures  ? 

Candidate.  Yes,  so  far  as  they  are  records  of  the  wis- 
dom and  devotion  and  piety  of  inspired  geniuses,  and  of  the 
dealings  of  God's  special  providence  in  the  salvation  of  na- 
tions, of  which  records  only  the  spirit  is  God's  but  the  let- 
ter man's. 


132  ORIENT. 

Minister.  Dost  thou  accept  and  revere  the  world's  pro- 
phets and  saints  ? 

Candidate.  Yes,  so  far  as  they  embody  and  reflect  the 
different  elements  of  Divine  character,  and  set  forth  the 
higher  ideals  of  life  for  the  instruction  and  sanctification  of 
the  world.  I  ought  to  revere  and  love  and  follow  all  that 
is  divine  in  them,  and  try  to  assimilate  it  to  my  soul,  mak- 
ing what  is  theirs  and  God's  mine. 

Minister.     What  is  thy  creed  ? 

Candidate.     The  science  of  God,  which  enlighteneth  all. 

Minister.     What  is  thy  gospel  ? 

Candidate.     The  love  of  God,  which  saveth  all. 

Minister.     What  is  thy  heaven  ? 

Candidate.     Life  in  God,  which  is  accessible  to  all. 

Minister.     What  is  thy  church  ? 

Candidate.  The  invisible  kingdom  of  God,  in  which  is 
all  truth,  all  love,  all  holiness. 

Minister.  Then  avow  thy  faith  in  the  presence  of  God 
Almighty. 

Candidate.     This  day  the  of  188  ,  I  ...  do 

in  the  presence  of  the  Holy  God  solemnly  avow  my  full 
faith  in  the  essential  principles  of  Pure  Theism  and  enter 
^he  Church  of  the  New  Dispensation.     So  help  me  God. 

Minister.  In  the  name  of  God  I  charge  thee  to  eschew 
all  manner  of  untruth  and  sin  and  sectarianism,  and  lead  a 
life  of  faith  and  purity,  love  and  devotion,  unto  the  glory  of 
God  and  of  his  holy  church. 

Candidate.  Most  merciful  God,  grant  unto  me  thy  re- 
deeming grace  that  I  may  magnify  thy  truth  and  prove 
worthy  of  thy  church. 

Minister.  May  the  Lord  bless  thee  and  be  with  thee  for 
ever ! 

The  minister  shall  then  present  unto  the  candidate  the 
Flag  of  the  New  Dispensation,  and  two  of  the  members  of 
the  congregation  shall  stand  forward  and  present  unto  him, 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU   THEISM.      133 

on  behalf  of  the  church,  a  copy  of  Scriptual  Texts,  a  copy 
of  the  New  Samhita,  and  a  carpet  for  daily  devotion,  and 
embrace  him  with  brotherly  love. 

The  candidate  shall  then  bow  reverently  before  the  Lord, 
and  the  whole  congregation  shall  say,  — 

Peace,  Peace,  Peace. 

Very  naturally,  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  quotes  all  the 
mystics.  His  object  is  to  bring  together  all  the  de- 
vout hearts  of  the  world.  I  part  from  this  theme  by 
reading,  as  a  contrast  to  the  sermon  I  have  cited,  Mr. 
Sen's  last  and  really  worst  production,  and  yet  it 
shows  to  what  the  man  is  tending :  — 

THE  NEW  DISPENSATION -EXTRAOEDINARY. 

NEW   year's   DAT,   JANUAllY    IST,    1883. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  a  servant  of  God,  called  to  be 
an  apostle  of  the  Church  of  the  New  Dispensation,  which  is 
in  the  holy  city  of  Calcutta,  the  metropolis  of  Aryavarta. 

To  all  the  great  nations  in  the  world  and  to  the  chief  re- 
ligious sects  in  the  East  and  West ; 

To  the  followers  of  Moses,  of  Jesus,  of  Buddha,  of  Con- 
fucius, of  Zoroaster,  of  Mohammed,  of  Nanac,  and  to  the 
various  branches  of  the  Hindu  Church ; 

To  the  saints  and  the  sages,  the  bishops  and  the  elders, 
the  ministers  and  the  missionaries  of  all  these  religious 
bodies : 

Grace  be  unto  you  and  peace  everlasting. 

Whereas,  sectarian  discord  and  strife,  schisms  and  enmi- 
ties prevail  in  our  Father's  family,  causing  much  bitterness 
and  unhappiness,  impurity  and  unrighteousness,  and  even 
war,  carnage,  and  bloodshed  ; 

Whereas,    this   setting  of   brother  against   brother  and 


134  ORIENT. 

sister  against  sister  in  the  name  of  religion  has  proved  a 
fruitful  source  of  evils  and  is  itself  a  sin  against  God  and 
man : 

It  has  pleased  the  Holy  God  to  send  unto  the  world 
a  message  of  peace  and  love,  of  harmony  and  reconcilia- 
tion. 

This  New  Dispensation  hath  He  in  boundless  mercy 
vouchsafed  to  us  in  the  East,  and  we  have  been  commanded 
to  bear  witness  unto  it  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Thus  saith  the  Lord :  Sectarianism  is  an  abomination 
unto  me,  and  unbrotherliness  I  will  not  tolerate. 

I  desire  love  and  unity,  and  my  children  shall  be  of  one 
heart,  even  as  I  am  one. 

At  sundry  times  have  I  spoken  through  my  prophets, 
and,  though  many  and  various  my  dispensations,  there  is 
unity  in  them. 

But  the  followers  of  these  my  prophets  have  quarreled 
and  fought,  and  they  hate  and  exclude  each  other. 

The  unity  of  Heaven's  messages  have  they  denied,  and 
the  science  that  binds  and  harmonizes  them  their  eyes  see 
not  and  their  hearts  ignore. 

Hear  ye,  men,  there  is  one  music,  but  many  instruments  ; 
one  body,  but  many  limbs  ;  one  spirit,  but  diverse  gifts  ;  one 
blood,  yet  many  nations ;  one  church,  yet  many  churches. 

Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  who  reconcile  differences 
and  establish  peace,  good-will,  and  brotherhood  in  the  name 
of  the  Father. 

These  words  hath  the  Lord  our  God  spoken  unto  us,  and 
his  new  gospel  He  hath  revealed  unto  us,  a  gospel  of  ex- 
ceeding joy. 

The  Church  Universal  hath  He  already  planted  in  this 
land,  and  therein  are  all  prophets  and  all  scriptures  harmon- 
ized in  beautiful  synthesis. 

And  these  blessed  tidings  the  loving  Father  hath  charged 
me  and  my  brother  apostles  to  declare  unto  all  the  nations 


KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN   AND   HINDU   THEISM.      135 

of  the  world,  that,  being  of  one  blood,  they  may  also  be  of 
one  faith  and  rejoice  in  one  Lord. 

Thus  shall  all  discord  be  over,  saith  the  Lord,  and  peace 
shall  reign  on  earth. 

Humbly,  therefore,  I  exhort  you,  brethren,  to  accept  this 
new  message  of  universal  love. 

Hate  not;  but  love  ye  one  another  and  be  ye  one  in 
spirit  and  in  truth,  even  as  the  Father  is  one. 

All  errors  and  impurities  ye  shall  eschew,  in  whatever 
church  or  nation  they  may  be  found ;  but  ye  shall  hate  no 
scripture,  no  prophet,  no  church. 

Renounce  all  manner  of  superstition  and  error,  infidel- 
ity and  skepticism,  vice  and  sensuality,  and  be  ye  pure  and 
perfect. 

Every  saint,  every  prophet,  and  every  martyr  ye  shall 
honor  and  love  as  a  man  of  God. 

Gather  ye  the  wisdom  of  the  East  and  the  West ;  and 
accept  and  assimilate  the  examples  of  the  saints  of  all  ages, 

So  that  the  most  fervent  devotion,  the  deepest  commun- 
ion, the  most  self-denying  asceticism,  the  warmest  philan- 
thropy, the  strictest  justice  and  veracity,  and  the  highest 
purity  of  the  best  men  in  the  world  may  be  yours. 

Above  all,  love  one  another  and  merge  all  differences  in 
universal  brotherhood. 

Beloved  brethren,  accept  our  love  and  give  us  yours,  and 
let  the  East  and  the  West  with  one  heart  celebrate  the  jubi- 
lee of  the  New  Dispensation. 

Let  Asia,  Europe,  Africa,  and  America,  with  diverse  in- 
struments, praise  the  New  Dispensation  and  sing  the  Fa- 
therhood of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 

There  are  Unitarians,  there  are  friends  of  merely 
natural  religion,  there  are  theists,  in  the  Occident, 
who  look  upon  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  as  a  man  who 
is  bringing  in  the  religion  of  the  future  for  the  whole 


136  ORIENT. 

world  through  the  gate  of  Asia.  Compared  with 
evangelical  Christianity  in  India,  the  movement 
which  Mr.  Sen  leads  is  a  bubble.  It  has  a  certain 
power;  but,  as  Christianity  begins  to  obtain  hold 
of  the  better  educated  classes,  that  movement  will 
wane  in  influence.  This  religious  reformer  deserves 
the  prayers  of  all  good  men  that  he  may  yet  be 
led  into  a  more  profound  knowledge  of  Christianity. 
My  objection  to  his  method  is  not  that  he  prays  too 
much  ;  but  that  he  studies  too  little.  I  should  not 
be  surprised  if,  in  his  advanced  years,  he  should 
retire  to  the  Himalayas,  and  there,  as  a  devotee, 
through  a  life  of  comparative  solitude  and  austerity 
and  the  profound  inspirations  of  secret  prayer,  en- 
deavor to  make  himself  a  prophet  for  the  ages.  It  is 
in  the  man  to  do  this.  He  is  not  a  fanatic.  A  man 
more  remarkable  for  religious  than  for  intellectual 
genius,  thoroughly  honest,  he  is  led  by  his  moral  feel- 
ing rather  than  by  this  and  the  judgment  combined. 
He  will  at  any  cost  try  to  push  his  effort  for  the  uni- 
fication of  the  religions  of  all  races.  America  and 
Europe  will  hear  more  of  that  movement.  Keep 
your  eyes  upon  it,  and  offer,  at  the  same  time,  devout 
prayers  that  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  and  all  his  follow- 
ers may  be  led  into  the  Himalayan  Heights  of  Sinai, 
and  there  see  the  need  of  an  Atonement  and  of  the 
New  Birth  to  deliver  men  from  the  love  of  sin  and 
from  the  guilt  of  it. 


PARSEE  WORSHIP  AT   SUNSET. 

At  half-past  five  o'clock,  as  the  sun  was  going 
down  behind  the  rim  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  I  often 
saw  a  score  of  Parsees  worshiping  on  the  shore  at 
Bombay  with  their  faces  turned  devoutly  toward  the 
west.  Approaching  the  water  the  Parsee  first  per- 
forms an  ablution  of  his  hands  and  face.  Sitting 
erect  he  unbinds  the  cord  which  he  uses  as  a  girdle, 
and  which  is  a  symbol  of  good  thoughts,  good  words, 
and  good  deeds.  He  holds  the  cord  in  his  hands,  and 
appears  to  be  measuring  yard  lengths  upon  it,  while 
he  is  uttering  in  a  low  tone  passages  from  a  prayer- 
book.  Sometimes  he  passes  the  cord  across  his  face, 
bows  his  head  toward  the  sun,  and  has  the  air  of 
one  absorbed  in  introversive  devout  thought.  The 
prayer-book  is  occasionally  held  in  his  hand,  but  usu- 
ally he  recites  from  memory.  After  some  minutes  he 
is  seen  to  kneel,  touch  his  forehead  to  the  earth,  rise, 
and  kneel  again  and  again  with  his  forehead  to  the 
ground.  After  a  few  more  prayers,  uttered  while 
he  is  sitting  erect,  his  girdle  is  restored  to  its  place, 
and  lie  often  finishes  his  devotions  before  the  sun  has 
disappeared.  I  saw  several  aged  men,  however,  read- 
ing their  prayer-books  with  their  faces  turned  toward 
the  west  after  the  disk  of  the  sun  was,  oat  of  sight. 
A  Parsee  gentleman  fell  into  conversation  with  me, 


138  ORIENT. 

and  I  questioned  him  somewhat  closely  as  to  the 
mental  attitude  of  the  worshipers  at  these  cere- 
monies. "  When  an  educated  Parsee  recites  prayers 
at  sunset,"  I  asked,  "  is  he  thinking  of  the  sun  or  of 
its  Creator  ?  "  "  The  educated  Parsee,"  was  the 
answer,  "  thinks  of  the  great  Being  behind  the  sun, 
but  perhaps  an  ignorant  Parsee  thinks  chiefly  of  the 
sun  itself.  The  prayers  have  much  the  tone  of  the 
148th  Psalm."  *'Fire  and  hail,  snow  and  vapors, 
mountains,  fruitful  trees,  praise  the  name  of  the 
Lord." 

The  Parsee  prayers  ascribe  glory  to  the  sun  and 
the  sea,  while  it  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  mighty 
psalm  here  cited  that  it  calls  on  the  sun  and  the  sea 
to  ascribe  glory  to  their  Creator.  This  Parsee  gen- 
tleman was  intelligent  enough  to  recommend  to  me 
Spiegel  and  Haug  as  among  the  chief  writers  on  Par- 
seeism.  He  admitted  that  Parsees  can  be  found  who 
go  through  these  ceremonies  often,  and  yet  cheat 
every  day  in  their  bargains.  A  moderate  amount  of 
serious  light  was  in  the  faces  of  the  worshipers  as 
'they  turned  away.  Among  the  older  men  who  were 
worshiping  in  the  park  near  the  sea  with  their  faces 
toward  the  west,  I  saw  two  or  three  with  peaceful 
and  noble  spiritual  moods  illuminating  their  regular 
and  somewhat  massive  features  with  the  light  from 
the  Sun  behind  the  sun. 


PARSEE  TOWERS   OF   SILENCE.  139 


PARSES   TOWERS   OF   SILENCE. 

It  was  a  bright,  and  not  cool,  morning  when 
Mrs.  C.  and  myself,  armed  with  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion from  Sir  Jamsetjee  Jeejeeboy,  drove  along  the 
crest  of  Malabar  Hill  to  the  grounds  in  which  stand 
the  famous  Parsee  Towers  of  Silence.  All  the  fresh- 
ness of  the  hour  was  needed  to  prevent  a  natural 
feeling  of  dissuasive  horror,  which  might  have  pre- 
vented our  visit  had  we  yielded  to  our  shudders 
rather  than  to  our  judgments.  On  a  palm  near  the 
inclosure  we  saw  a  group  of  gorged  vultures  sunning 
themselves  in  the  rising  light  of  the  east.  We  as- 
cended a  broad  stone  staircase  and  passed  into  a 
stony  field  of  some  seven  or  ten  acres,  with  tall 
palm-trees  and  a  few  not  very  stately  lower  growths 
scattered  over  it.  Five  towers  of  costly  hard  black 
granite,  the  largest  of  them  about  twenty-five  feet 
high  by  fifty  in  diameter,  stood  on  the  heights  of 
this  field.  They  are  colored  white  and  are  without 
ornament.  Each  one  has  a  well  in  the  centre.  From 
the  opening  of  this  pit,  an  inner  floor  slopes  at  a 
gentle  incline  upwards  to  the  rim  of  the  tower. 
Corpses  are  placed  on  this  slope.  Those  of  men 
lie  at  the  outer  edge,  those  of  women  in  the  mid- 
dle, those  of  children  at  the  rim  nearest  the  well's 
mouth. 

The  theory  of  the  Parsees  is  that  earth,  fire,  and 
water  are  too  sacred  to  be  defiled  by  the  touch  of  a 
corpse.  They  expose  a  naked  dead  body  on  these 
Towers  of  Silence,  and  expect  the  sun  and  the  wind 


140  ORIENT. 

and  the  rain,  with  the  help  of  insects,  to  dispose  of 
the  fleshy  part  of  the  mortal  remains.  At  Bombay, 
however,  and  in  most  other  places  within  the  tropics, 
swifter  messengers  than  insects  are  sent  to  do  the 
work  of  causing  a  corpse  to  disappear.  No  sooner  is 
the  naked  body  exposed  than  scores  of  vultures  sweep 
down  upon  it.  Within  fifteen  minutes,  in  most  cases, 
the  fleshy  part  is  entirely  removed  from  the  osseous 
structure,  and  the  gorged  birds  take  their  positions 
on  the  parapets  of  the  towers.  I  counted  twenty  of 
these  plethoric  cormorants  sitting  almost  motionless  as 
a  living  coping  around  the  edge  of  one  of  the  largest 
structures.  When  the  bones  are  dry  they  are  picked 
up  with  tongs  by  men  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and 
dropped  into  the  well.  Thus  the  dust  of  the  rich 
and  that  of  the  poor  are,  at  last,  found  in  one  recep- 
tacle. A  Parsee  is  accustomed  to  say  that  God  sends 
the  vultures  to  do  their  horrid  work  in  these  towers, 
and  that  he  had  rather  be  eaten  by  birds  than  by 
worms*  Monier  Williams,  reporting  at'  length  the 
defenses  which  the  Parsees  offer  for  their  methods  of 
disposing  of  corpses,  endeavors  to  be  tolerant  of  their 
shocking  characteristics,  and  would  seem  to  regard 
them  as  not  more  repulsive  than  Christian  methods 
of  burial.  The  disfigurement  of  the  body,  however, 
by  the  vultures ;  the  picking  out  of  the  eyes  and 
the  heart,  not  to  mention  a  thousand  and  one  other 
easily  imaginable  necessary  horrors  of  the  process, 
are  a  sufficient  condemnation  of  the  rather  barbaric 
Parsee  custom.  In  ordinary  burial  the  figure  may 
remain  for  years  untouched  within  a  leaden  coffin,  or 
even  within  a  wooden  one.    Member  is  not  separated 


MY   RECORD   IN   INDIA.  141 

from  member,  even  after  the  body  returns  to  dust. 
Shakespeare's  imprecations  against  any  who  should 
move  his  bones  might  well  be  called  down  upon  the 
Parsee  vultures.  Near  the  Towers  of  Silence  the 
reservoirs  of  water  for  Bombay  lie,  with  wide  gleam- 
ing surfaces,  exposed  to  the  sun.  It  is  one  of  the 
questions  agitated  by  the  municipal  government  of 
the  population  who  drink  this  water  whether  the 
vultures  can  be  trusted  not  to  pollute  it,  in  case 
corpses  filled  with  contagious  diseases  are  carried  to 
the  Towers  of  Silence.  It  has  been  proposed  to 
cover  the  reservoirs  in  order  to  prevent  the  contam- 
ination of  the  water,  and  another  project  is  to  force 
the  Parsees  to  erect  new  towers  at  a  distance  from 
the  city. 

On  Shipboard,  near  Singapore,  April  5, 1882. 

Twenty-one  towns  visited  ;  forty  -  two  public  ap- 
pearances ;  eighty-four  consecutive  days  in  India 
and  Ceylon  ;  three  months  precisely,  from  January 
5  to  April  5,  between  landing  at  Bombay  and  arrival 
at  Singapore ;  such  is  the  substance  of  my  record  in 
India.  When  my  ship  turns  the  end  of  the  Malay 
Peninsula  and  sets  her  prow  toward  Hong  Kong,  I 
shall  feel  myself  in  China.  From  Singapore  east- 
ward, letters  go  to  America  by  the  way  of  the  Pacific, 
so  that,  when  I  pass  this  corner  of  the  world,  I  shall 
begin  to  feel  the  winds  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  and 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  even  from  my  own  Adi- 
rondacks  and  Lake  George  ! 

The  Ganges  is  a  part  of  my  soul.  The  Himalayas 
have  entered  into  the  substance  of  my  spirit.     They 


142  ORIENT. 

will  remain  there  forever.  The  Taj  Mahal  is  pos- 
sessed of  a  perraanent  place  in  my  daily  thoughts. 
At  any  moment  I  feel  as  if  I  could  touch  the  Kutub 
Minar,  the  temples  of  Benares,  the  University  tow- 
ers of  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Madras.  I  see  vividly 
the  mighty  harbors  of  the  presidential  cities  of  India, 
the  stately  bungalows  in  which  I  have  been  a  guest, 
the  crowded  railway  trains,  the  swarming  markets, 
the  multiplex  life  of  250,000,000  of  men  between 
Ceylon  and  Cashmere.  I  have  my  favorites  among 
the  tropical  trees,  which  are  no  more  strange  to  me,  — 
the  whole  family  of  palms,  areca,  talipot,  palmyra, 
cocoa-nut,  and  date ;  the  peepul,  the  mango,  the  tam- 
arind, the  margosa,  the  Pride  of  India,  the  bamboo, 
the  coffee  shrub,  the  tea  plant,  the  bread  fruit,  the 
mighty  banyan.  I  remember  the  Bengal  tigers  in 
their  jungles,  and  the  elephants  in  the  forests  of  Cey- 
lon and  in  the  temples.  I  see  the  green  parrots  flying 
through  the  gardens  of  the  Taj  Mahal.  There  is  a 
little  bird,  the  barbet,  or  coppersmith,  with  a  single 
mellow  note  like  that  of  the  cuckoo,  a  drop  of  celes- 
tial melody,  which  I  have  heard  with  intense  delight 
from  the  foot  of  Kinchinjunga  to  the  southernmost 
palms  of  Ceylon. 

After  all,  however,  the  most  interesting  objects  I 
have  seen  in  India  have  not  been  its  rivers,  nor  its 
mountains,  nor  its  trees,  nor  its  monuments,  but  its 
men.  No  sight  between  the  Himalayas  and  the  sea 
has  moved  me  as  much  as  my  audiences.  They  have 
appeared  to  me  more  worthy  of  study  than  any  other 
fascinating  view  on  which  my  eyes  have  rested. 
Brahmins,  Parsees,  Mohammedans,  students,  clerks, 


MARVELOUS   ENRICHMENT   OF   LIFE.  143 

merchants,  English,  Scotch,  Americans,  but  especially 
the  educated  English-speaking  Hindus  in  their  most 
critical  stage  of  transition  from  their  traditional  un- 
belief to  a  new  philosophical  and  religious  faith,  and 
crowding  to  hear  discussions  addressed  to  them  in 
English  on  the  highest  themes,  —  these  varieties  of 
human  types  remain  in  my  memory  and  make  my 
months  in  India  a  marvelous  enrichment  of  life. 


WOMAN'S   WORK   FOR   WOMAN  IN  ASIA, 

WITH    A   PRELUDE   ON 

RELIGION  IN   COLLEGES,   AT  HOME  AND 
ABROAD. 

THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND   SIXTIETH   LECTURE  IN  THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY   LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED  IN 

TREMONT  TEMPLE,    MARCH  12,    1885. 


"  In  consequence  of  our  increasing  enlightenment  we  have  become 
capable  of  comprehending  Christianity  in  its  purity.  Let  mental 
culture  go  on  advancing ;  let  the  natural  sciences  go  on  gaining  in 
depth  and  breadth,  and  the  human  mind  expand  as  it  may,  it  will 
never  transcend  the  height  and  moral  culture  of  Christianity  as  it 
shines  and  glows  in  the  gospels!"  —  Goethe:  Conversations  with 
Eckermann. 

"  Jesus  represents  within  the  sphere  of  religion  the  culmination 
point  beyond  which  posterity  can  never  go  ;  yea,  which  it  cannot  even 
equal.  He  remains  the  highest  model  of  religion  within  reach  of  our 
thought.  No  perfect  piety  is  possible  without  his  presence  in  the 
heart." — David  F.  Strauss. 


There  are  no  homes  in  Asia  \" —  W.  H.  Seward, 

"  Rise,  woman,  rise 
To  thy  peculiar  and  best  altitudes 
Of  doing  good  and  of  enduring  ill, 
Of  comforting  for  ill,  and  teaching  good. 
And  reconciling  all  that  ill  and  good 
Unto  the  patience  of  a  constant  hope,  — 
Rise  with  thy  daughters.     If  sin  came  by  thee. 
And  by  sin,  death,  —  the  ransom-righteousness, 
The  heavenly  life  and  compensative  rest 
Shall  come  by  means  of  thee." 

Mrs.  E.  B.  Browning. 


PRELUDE   IV. 

BELIGION   IN   COLLEGES,   AT   HOME  AND  ABKOAD. 

It  is  an  exceedingly  significant  fact  that  for  fifty 
years  the  number  of  our  college  students  has  in- 
creased more  than  twice  as  fast  as  that  of  our  popu- 
lation. In  1880  there  were  only  4,021  college  stu- 
dents in  the  United  States  ;  now  there  are  62,435. 
(See  American  Almanac  for  1883,  p.  47.)  What 
aspiration  this  one  fact  reveals  in  the  American 
masses ;  what  heroic  self-help  on  the  part  of  many 
young  men  ;  what  generous  assistance  from  parents 
of  large  incomes  ;  what  pathetic  self  -  denial  in  the 
case  of  many  a  father  and  mother  of  limited  or  nar- 
row means,  but  resolved  to  lift  their  son  to  an  oppor- 
tunity better  than  their  own  !  Webster  once  invoked 
a  curse  upon  himself  if  he  ever  forgot  what  his  father 
did  for  his  education.  Carlyle  felt  through  his  whole 
life  that  he  was  standing  on  his  father's  shoulders. 
Let  men  who  are  not  self-made  remember  who  made 
them.  Accursed  is  everything  that  brings  a  cloud  or 
even  a  haze  between  a  young  man  and  father  and 
mother,  brother  or  sister !  Let  students  saturate 
their  individual  secret  college  lives  with  home  life 
and  home  life  with  college  life. 

It  is  said  that  three  bad  men  give  a  tone  to  a  regi- 

10 


148  ORIENT. 

ment.  Six  bad  men  will  give  a  tone  to  almost  any 
college  class.  With  such  great  classes  as  our  univer- 
sities of  the  first  rank  now  have,  it  is  uncommon  not 
to  find  that  number  of  bad  men  in  a  class.  Under 
the  subtle  operation  of  precedents  in  college  life,  a 
few  wild  youth  may  give  a  lasting  taint  to  many  a 
society  organized  in  their  university.  A  college  full 
of  undergraduates  is  a  world  in  itself ;  but  its  mem- 
bers are  not  selected  to  match  each  other  in  moral 
matters. 

A  young  man  who  goes  into  college  cringing  and 
ducking,  and  acts  like  a  poltroon  in  his  first  few 
weeks,  in  presence  of  a  few  rough-shod  moral  mis- 
leaders  in  his  class,  is  very  likely  to  be  trampled  on 
through  his  whole  four  years.  A  young  man  who 
allows  himself  to  be  ridden  over  by  the  moral  roughs 
of  a  college  for  four  years  is  likely  to  be  ridden  over 
by  the  moral  roughs  of  professional  life,  and  most 
especially  by  those  of  politics  and  commerce.  He  is 
not  likely  to  have  courage  to  stand  erect  in  presence 
of  the  huge  vices  of  our  time.  It  is,  therefore,  of 
the  utmost  consequence  that  a  young  man  entering 
college  should  be  taught,  in  the  first  place,  to  con- 
front undergraduate  giddiness  with  moral  courage 
and  manliness. 

If  a  young  man  is  ruined  in  college,  it  is  at  least 
possible  that  he  is  not  worth  saving.  If  a  young 
man,  after  such  training  as  now  usually  precedes  a 
college  course,  cannot  stand  up  in  college  against 
the  ordinary  moral  temptations  of  the  place,  against 
the  sneers  of  a  few  dissipated  classmates,  against 
the  petty  annoyances  that  may  be  inflicted  on  him 


RELIGION   IN   COLLEGES.  149 

in  his  earlier  college  years  because  of  his  moral  at- 
titude, then  I  say  that  such  a  young  man  is  prob- 
ably not  worth  saving  for  the  great  purposes  of  a 
courageous  public  life.  We  must  look  upon  such 
men  as,  in  most  cases,  weaklings  and  poltroons,  and 
try  to  create  a  soul  under  the  ribs  of  their  death  by 
pointing  out  their  cowardice. 

Some  men,  I  know,  are  naturally  shy  and  others 
brave ;  but  to  each  temperament  Providence  assigns 
special  weapons  of  self-protection.  The  sharp-horned 
elk  in  the  wilds  of  Africa  has  been  known  to  be  some- 
times a  fatal  antagonist  of  a  lion.  A  Dean  Stanley, 
in  his  preparatory  school,  used  to  kneel  down  at  his 
bedside,  in  the  midst  of  jeers  from  all  quarters  of  a 
great  apartment,  and  sometimes  under  missiles  hurled 
at  him  from  this  corner  or  that,  and  offer  his  prayers 
as  he  did  aforetime  on  his  father's  hearth.  A  shyer 
boy,  perhaps,  never  went  into  a  rough  public  school ; 
but  in  after  life  this  man  exhibited  the  same  bravery 
to  the  very  end  that  he  manifested  as  a  mere  youth. 
His  character  in  his  public  career,  like  that  of  many 
another  scholar,  was  formed  in  part  by  the  experi- 
ence he  had  of  standing  up  with  vigor  in  defense  of 
his  moral  ideals  when  he  was  in  the  preparatory 
school  and  in  college. 

In  class  pride  and  in  the  mechanical  arrangements 
of  students  in  colleges,  there  is  a  subtle  temptation 
to  make  complaisance  the  rale,  even  in  presence  of 
vice.  Young  men  are  arranged  alphabetically  on  the 
seats  of  the  university  class-rooms,  and,  perhaps,  a 
man  of  high  moral  principle  sits  side  by  side  with  a 
moral  leper.    A  wilted  debauchee  is  not  a  fruit  of  the 


150  ORIENT. 

Tree  of  Life  so  much  as  a  husk  and  a  pod.  The  sap 
of  youth  is  ah-eady  drawn  out  of  him  by  his  vices. 
He  is  a  cinder  already,  but  you  may  sit  beside  him 
for  four  years.  Still,  of  course,  you  must  be  cour- 
teous. A  hero  must  be  a  gentleman;  but  a  gentle- 
man may  also  be  a  gentleman^  and  the  full  height 
of  culture  is  obtained  only  by  emphasizing  both  parts 
of  this  word.  You  must  do  what  decency  requires, 
but  you  need  not  invite  that  man  to  your  room;  you 
need  not  form  any  social  affiliations  with  him.  You 
may  treat  him  with  courteous  good-humor  here  and 
there;  possibly  you  may  have  an  opportunity  to  say 
a  serious  word  to  him  more  than  once  before  your 
quadrennial  shall  end.  Marvelous  opportunity  this 
is  for  you  to  rescue  a  brand  from  the  burning ! 

Do  you  say  that  this  is  unpopular  language  in 
universities  ?  I  have  seen  too  many  college  brands 
burned  to  thin  ashes  not  to  be  willing  to  use  this  lan- 
guage with  entire  frankness  face  to  face  with  the 
haughtiest  university  on  earth.  I  am  some  years  out 
of  the  university,  and  I  tell  young  men  who  are  now 
in  college,  that,  ten  years  after  they  are  out  of  it,  if 
they  will  call  the  roll  of  the  dissipated  men  that  they 
knew  in  their  quadrennial,  they  will  usually  find  seven 
out  of  ten  of  them  approaching  early  graves.  I  do 
not  know  one  man  who  had  the  reputation  of  a  dissi- 
pated person  in  my  college  course  that  now  has  a  po- 
sition of  any  honor  in  a  profession.  The  test  of  the 
seaworthiness  of  new  ships  is  to  launch  them  in  the 
surf. 

Ten  years  of  self-support  show  of  what  substance 
young  men  in  college  were  really  made.     It  is  possi- 


RELIGION  IN   COLLEGES.  151 

ble  that  a  wealthy  man's  son  in  college  may  be  dissi- 
pated, and  yet  live  a  smooth  outer  life  ;  but  after  he 
is  out  of  college,  let  him  be  forced  to  take  care  of 
himself,  let  him  begin  to  work  in  some  serious  busi- 
ness, let  him  enter  a  toilsome  profession,  and  very 
soon  his  fibre  shows  that  it  has  not  much  firmness. 
He  is  morally  disintoned,  if  not  melted,  by  his  vices. 
His  will  is  weak,  even  if  his  body  has  not  been  severely 
injured.  The  result  in  most  cases  is  that  he  stum- 
bles in  his  first  efforts,  and,  stumbling  there,  he  stum- 
bles more  or  less  in  his  second,  and  competition  passes 
him  by.  In  the  rough  contests  of  professional  life  he 
is  very  soon  under  foot  and  forgotten. 

Some  dissipated  men  have  been  saved  by  an  ex- 
acting profession,  and  some  by  a  happy  marriage, 
which  no  dissipated  man  deserves  ;  but  these  are  ex- 
ceptional cases.  You  must  not  look  forward  to  any 
such  issue  of  your  dallying  with  vice.  It  is  indeed 
possible  that  as  you  grow  older  you  will  see  that  the 
apples  of  Sodom  are  full  of  dust  and  ashes,  and  are 
not  food  for  rational  souls.  Mere  ambition  may  lift 
you  into  something  like  honor,  if  not  into  religious 
principle.  It  is  possible  that  love  may  take  up  the 
harp  of  your  life,  and  — 

"  Smite  on  all  the  chords  with  might. 
Smite  the  chord  of  self,  which,  trembling, 
May  in  music  pass  from  sight." 

Perhaps  this  is  what  will  happen,  also,  with  sen- 
suality, and  with  indolence,  and  with  all  those  loath- 
some habits  which  you  have  hugged  to  your  bosom 
in  your  dissipated  college  course.  But  the  proba- 
bility is  that   these  vipers  will   continue  to  feed  on 


152  ORIENT. 

your  heart's  core  until  you  pass  into  your  grave.  I 
say,  therefore,  to  the  young  men  of  honor  in  college, 
Shake  off  from  the  very  first  all  company  that  is  not 
respectable.  Daniel  Webster  read  through  the  life 
of  Lord  Byron,  and  said  that  there  was  not  a  single 
trait  in  Byron's  earlier  character  that  he  could  re- 
spect ;  and  that,  therefore,  he  cared  for  no  close  as- 
sociation with  the  soul  of  Byron,  simply  because  he 
was  not  respectable.  He  admired  his  genius,  but  re- 
membered that  in  the  long  course,  under  the  opera- 
tion of  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  he  comes 
nearest  to  success  who  is  nearest  to  God. 

By  what  methods  may  a  man  secure  the  right 
moral  management  of  his  life  in  college  ? 

1.  Association  of  the  intimate  kind  only  with  re- 
spectable fellow-students,  no  matter  how  long  the 
period  of  college  acquaintanceship  may  be,  nor  what 
class  sentiment  may  dictate. 

2.  Devout  cultivation  of  all  the  affections,  sancti- 
ties, honors,  and  blisses  of  home  life. 

3.  Settlement  of  a  plan  for  success  in  this  world 
a*nd  the  next. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  whom  Thomas  Carlyle  called 
the  father  of  all  shrewd  Americans,  and  of  whom 
the  French  love  to  say  that  he  wrenched  the  sceptre 
from  tyrants  and  the  lightning  from  heaven,  was 
accustomed,  at  the  close  of  every  day,  even  in  the 
busiest  parts  of  his  mercilessly  crowded  life,  to  exam- 
ine his  actions  and  motives,  and  place  against  himself 
marks,  black  or  white,  according  to  the  judgment  of 
the  innermost  moral  sense.  While  he  was  an  ambas- 
sador at  Paris  he  kept  up  this  habit,  and  carried 


RELIGION   IN   COLLEGES.  153 

with  him  a  little  book  ruled  in  thirteen  columns  in 
one  direction  and  in  seven  in  the  other,  and  contain- 
ing the  names  of  the  cardinal  virtues,  in  which  it  was 
his  purpose  to  make  himself,  if  possible,  perfect. 

The  next  world  is  clearly  visible  from  many  of  the 
heights  of  youth.  Let  young  men  cultivate  assid- 
uously the  wisdom  which  these  moments  give  the 
soul.  Take  your  loftiest  moods  and  make  them  the 
guiding  constellations  of  your  lives. 

"  Falter  not  to  seize  thy  fore-wish, 
Where  the  many  fear  to  clasp ; 
Noble  minds  may  all  accomplish 
They  perceive  and  promptly  grasp." 

4.  Preparation  to  meet  the  demands  of  your  own 
intellectual  and  spiritual  growth. 

One  mischief  among  young  men  is  that  they  do  not 
anticipate  their  own  mental  and  moral  development. 
Have  not  you  outgrown  the  love  of  rocking-horses 
and  kites  and  candies,  and  are  you  not  likely  to  out- 
grow many  of  your  present  tastes?  Provide  for 
what  you  will  be  when,  at  forty  years  of  age,  or 
thirty -five,  or  thirty,  you  are  in  the  midst  of  a 
crowded  professional  life. 

5.  Anticipation  of  marriage. 

Remember  what  you  will  desire  when  you  have  a 
fireside  of  your  own.  A  most  delicate  theme,  you 
say,  to  mention  to  university  students.  Would  God 
that  it  were  mentioned  somewhere  every  week  in  the 
ears  of  young  men  in  colleges !  Would  God  that  the 
future  fire  of  the  hearthstone  could  lie  as  a  living 
coal  on  every  tempted  heart  in  our  circles  of  young 
men    in    university  towns  !     When   I   left   Phillips 


154  ORIENT. 

Academy,  a  great  professor  in  Andover  Theological 
Seminary  said,  in  a  farewell  address  to  my  class  :  "  In 
view  of  the  temptations  of  a  college  life,  it  would  be 
well  for  every  young  man  to  have  laid  on  his  heart 
a  livmg  red-hot  coal  of  God  Almighty's  wrath." 
Put  upon  the  hearts  of  young  men  large  gatherings 
of  coals  out  of  their  anticipated  future  family  fires. 
Take  the  burning  incense  off  the  marriage  altar,  and 
place  it,  while  yet  you  are  in  college,  on  your  heart, 
and  through  the  ascending  clouds  of  that  holy  obla- 
tion vice  will  reveal  itself  to  you  as  the  unspeakably 
odious  thing  it  is. 

6.  High  intellectual  aims,  unflinchingly  pursued  in 
face  of  every  discouragement. 

If  a  young  man  is  tempted  in  college,  let  him  aim 
to  be  first  in  his  class,  and  very  soon  temptation  will 
lose  its  attractiveness.  My  conviction  is  that  most 
young  men  underrate  the  extent  of  self-improvement 
they  are  capable  of  achieving  under  the  permanent 
pressure  of  high  aims  or  the*  necessities  of  a  profes- 
sion. 

'  7.  Intellectual  and  moral  nearness  to  the  greatest 
and  best  men  and  persistent  aloofness  from  the  weak- 
est and  worst  in  college  faculties. 

It  perhaps  ill  becomes  me  to  speak  of  the  living 
among  our  revered  college  instructors  ;  but  I  cannot 
resist  the  temptation  to  mention  three  or  four  men 
who  stand  as  watch-towers  on  the  stormy  coasts  of 
university  careers  —  Mark  Hopkins  [applause] ,  Pres- 
ident Woolsey,  James  McCosh. 

At  least  twelve  hundred  students  have  been  grad- 
uated from  Princeton  College   since   President  Mc- 


RELIGION   IN   COLLEGES.  155 

Cosh  became  the  head  of  the  institution,  and  only 
six  or  eight  of  them  have  gone  into  the  world  be- 
lieving nothing.  [Applause.]  President  McCosh  is 
a  philosopher  of  most  eminent  rank,  abreast  of  mod- 
ern science,  and  almost  monthly  publishing  discus- 
sions that  lead  thought  in  the  most  learned  circles, 
here  and  abroad.  Sixteen  years  minister  with  a  col- 
league in  a  Scottish  church  of  fourteen  hundred  com- 
municants, sixteen  years  professor  of  philosophy  at 
Belfast  University,  and  now  nearly  sixteen  years 
president  of  Princeton  College,  this  citizen  of  two 
hemispheres  has  to-day  a  voluntary  class  of  some 
three  hundred  students  in  philosophy,  and  at  the 
same  time  is  one  of  the  highest  authorities  in  the 
world  of  advanced  theological  thought.  He  is  not 
a  sectarian.  If  he  thought  he  had  a  drop  of  sectarian 
blood  in  his  veins.  President  McCosh  would  be  glad 
to  open  them  and  let  it  out.  [Applause.]  But  he 
believes  in  clear  ideas,  he  believes  in  spiritual  pur- 
poses, he  believes  in  conscience,  he  believes  in  natural 
religion  and  in  revealed,  and  he  allows  his  light  to 
shine  to  the  thirty-two  points  of  the  compass.  In 
spite  of  his  learning,  in  spite  of  the  dignity  of  his 
office,  in  spite  of  the  majesty  of  his  character  —  or, 
rather,  on  account  of  it — he  is  accustomed  to  take 
young  men  to  his  study  for  personal  conversation  on 
religion  and  for  prayer.  Very  few  skeptical  and  dis- 
sipated young  men  leave  Princeton  without  knowing 
what  the  president's  private  advice  is  in  its  relations 
to  these  high  matters.  I  have  read  a  statement  of 
President  McCosh  concerning  four  young  men  who 
were  particularly  given  to  skepticism,  and  who  re- 


156  ORIENT. 

fused,  even  under  tbese  influences,  to  be  brought  into 
anything  like  what  he  would  call  a  reasonable  mood. 
These  four  young  men,  although  they  left  college 
nearly  or  quite  agnostic,  atheistic,  or  infidel  in  their 
general  positions,  all  became  Christian  believers 
within  ten  years  and  three  of  them  preachers.  [Ap- 
plause.] May  Almighty  God  multiply  in  our  colleges 
men  like  Thomas  Arnold  and  Mark  Hopkins  and 
President  Woolsey  and  James  McCosh,  and  a  starry 
list  of  others  whom  your  reverent  thoughts  will  call 
to  mind ! 

With  emotions  fitly  expressed  only  by  a  famous 
poem  of  Matthew  Arnold's,  I  stood  once  a  long  while 
alone  in  the  stately  chapel  of  Rugby,  at  the  side  of 
the  marble  slab  in  the  floor  covering  the  spot  where 
Thomas  Arnold  lies  at  rest  until  the  heavens  be  no 
more.  A  ray  of  the  westering  English  sun  fell  upon 
it  in  benediction ;  but  it  seemed  to  come  from  the 
American  heavens,  so  dear  is  this  man's  memory  to 
hundreds  here  who  never  saw  his  face. 

I  know  not  what  may  be  the  horror  of  a  man  who 
feels  that  he  has  ruined  the  physical  life  of  another 
or  poisoned  the  body  ;  but  what  ought  to  be  the  un- 
speakable horror  of  any  college  professor  or  president 
who  by  his  sneers  at  Christianity  poisons  a  soul  ?  A 
man  who  exerts  a  bad  influence  from  a  college  chair 
becomes  a  block  over  which  young  men  by  scores,  and 
possibly  by  hundreds,  may  stumble  into  moral  disaster 
or  a  crippled  state  of  soul,  which  will  prevent  stal- 
wartness  in  their  public  lives,  when  they  are  called 
on  to  perform  the  highest  duties.  Would  God  that 
the  few  Gallios  who  reach  college  chairs,  and  treat 


RELIGION   IN   COLLEGES.  157 

religion  with  empty  unconcern,  could  read  with  due 
appreciation  Tennyson's  poem  on  the  temple  of  cul- 
ture in  the  "  Palace  of  Art !  "  After  three  years 
of  isolated  pride,  Tennyson's  soul,  according  to  this 
poem,  fell  down  in  despair,  called  on  God  to  teach 
it  to  pray,  and  to  show  it  the  means  of  deliverance 
from  guilt.  These  acts  are  the  loftiest  pinnacles  of 
culture. 

Would  God  that  we  could  have  in  the  churches  at 
large  such  a  vernal  season  as  to  melt  all  the  masses 
of  ice  in  the  frozen  altitudes  of  culture  and  transform 
them  into  bursting,  perennial,  crystalline  springs  and 
living,  leaping  streams  on  the  mountain-sides  of  our 
universities,  flowing  down  into  the  lower  slopes  of 
education,  and  fertilizing  the  great  valleys  with  an 
inundation  without  ebb,  and  so  passing  as  triumphant, 
far-flashing  rivers,  with  universal  benedictions,  into 
the  ocean  of  eternity!  [Loud  applause.]  That  is 
the  service  the  world  needs  from  college  professors. 
Let  them  be  rivers,  and  not  glaciers,  even  if  they  are 
on  the  stately  summits  of  Harvard.  [Laughter  and 
applause.] 

Let  me  defend  here  the  good  name  of  my  Alma 
Mater,  for  there  is  not  a  paving-stone  nor  an  elm-tree 
in  the  grounds  of  Harvard  University,  in  Cambridge 
yonder,  that  is  not  a  treasure  to  me.  Her  religious 
condition  is  vastly  better  now  than  it  was  a  generation 
ago ;  immensely  better  than  it  was  at  the  opening  of 
the  century.  Thirty  years  ago  only  nine  per  cent,  of 
the  students  of  Harvard  were  professed  Christians ; 
to-day  the  proportion  is  thirty-two  per  cent.  (The 
Rev.  C.  F.  Thwing,  in  ''  Christian  Union"  March  1, 


158  ORIENT. 

1883.  Sec  also  his  excellent  volume  on  "  American 
Colleges,"  pp.  55-68.)  There  are  little  swirls  of  re- 
action now  and  then  in  the  Harvard  College  life; 
but  she  must  not  be  judged  by  these,  but  by  her 
averages  of  influence,  —  not  that  I  regard  a  student 
there  as  at  any  time  in  a  hot-house  intended  to  cause 
the  growth  of  evangelical  piety  !  [Laughter.]  A 
man  who  goes  through  Harvard  and  stands  erect  is 
likely  to  be  able  to  stand  erect  afterward.  [Ap- 
plause.] Harvard  is  now  either  the  best  or  the  worst 
place  in  our  colleges  in  which  to  grow  Christians, 
just  as  the  open  field  is  the  best  or  worst  place  in 
which  to  grow  a  stalwart  oak.  If  the  oak  yields, 
it  snaps  and  lies  prostrate  ;  but  if  it  stands  erect,  if 
it  throws  out  victorious  branches  to  all  the  buffeting 
tempests,  then,  on  account  of  the  buffeting,  it  grows 
the  stronger,  and  at  the  last  becomes  rounded  and 
mighty  toward  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens.  Its 
strength  has  been  derived  from  the  very  winds  that 
have  assailed  it  by  day  and  by  night.  Let  a  young 
man  thus  stand  erect  in  college,  and  the  more  stern 
the  conditions  of  his  temptation  the  stronger  he  is 
likely  to  be  in  his  spiritual  maturity. 

8.  Establishment  of  the  chief  points  of  religious 
belief. 

You  cannot  study  the  whole  system  of  theology  be- 
fore you  are  graduated.  But  set  apart  some  portion  of 
your  time  —  I  do  not  care  if  it  is  the  whole  leisure  of 
every  Sunday — for  the  study  of  the  points  on  which 
you  are  most  in  doubt,  and  as  to  which  you  most  feel 
your  need  of  confirmation  of  conviction.  Let  several 
hours  a  week  be  used  for  special  spiritual  education, 


KELIGION   IN   COLLEGES.  159 

such  as  you  require.  Each  man's  case  differs  from 
that  of  every  other  man  in  many  points.  Let  every 
young  man  go  to  the  best  and  not  to  the  second  best 
adviser  for  religious  guidance.  If  any  college  profes- 
sor, hearing  an  account  of  your  peculiar  temptations, 
turns  upon  you  and  asks  simply,  with  a  pagan  stare : 
"  What  have  you  been  eating  ?  Is  not  something 
the  matter  with  your  stomach?"  turn  from  that 
man,  shake  off  the  very  dust  of  your  feet  against  him, 
and  remember  that  the  days  of  paganism  have  passed 
with  men  of  clear  ideas.  It  is  atrocious  to  find  col- 
lege professors  giving  stones,  when  they  are  asked  to 
give  bread.  You  will  find  professors  to  meet  your 
need,  if  you  search  for  them. 

There  ought  to  be  a  pastor  in  every  university, 
some  man  of  eminent  native  endowments,  of  unsul- 
lied splendor  of  character,  of  unstinted  largeness  of 
intellectual  acquisitions,  of  burning  spiritual  zeal,  and 
broad,  balanced  love  of  progress.  Let  such  a  person 
stand  before  young  men,  and  he  will  draw  them  as 
the  magnet  draws  the  needle.  It  cannot  but  be  that 
a  wise  preacher  will  produce  in  his  hearers  the  im- 
age of  God,  if  only  he  is  himself  rightly  intoxicated 
with  God.  Of  what  are  our  trustees  dreaming,  that 
they  leave  many  colleges  and  schools,  which  are  the 
most  important  parishes  of  New  England,  almost 
wholly  without  pastors  of  adequate  equipment? 

9.  Let  young  men  seek  balance  of  culture.  If  I 
were  to  develop  one  feature  in  the  countenance  at  the 
expense  of  another,  I  should  be  doing  very  much  what 
is  done  in  many  college  courses.  It  is  the  balance  of 
features  that  makes  the  expression  of  the  human  face. 


160  ORIENT. 

The  operation  of  an  exclusively  secular  college  course 
is  to  enlarge  the  eyes  and  lips,  and  sometimes  the 
chin  [laughter],  and  leave  the  other  features  un- 
changed. This  is  the  style  of  human  being  that  is 
apt  to  be  produced  by  a  merely  scientific  and  classical, 
and  not  distinctively  religious,  university  —  a  trun- 
cated, topless  moral  cone  —  the  loftiest  thing  in  the 
student  not  yet  developed.  Let  young  men  remem- 
ber that  it  is  symmetry  of  development  that  secures 
strength.  The  effort  of  our  time  to  make  men  spe- 
cialists is  a  glorious  and  necessary  one,  indeed  ;  but 
it  has  grave  dangers.  The  fragmentariness  and  nar- 
rowness of  the  culture  of  our  average  specialists  are 
not  enough  emphasized.  There  is  nothing  much 
worse  in  the  educational  hazards  of  our  time  than  a 
tendency  to  drill  men  out  of  all  symmetry,  into  mere 
specialists.  Any  college  that  does  not  seek  to  give  its 
students  moral  training,  in  some  such  sense  as  to  lift 
them  up  to  the  really  highest  ideals  of  religious  aspi- 
ration, is  a  one-sided  affair  and  should  be  criticised  in 
the  name  of  culture. 

'  Rawness  of  thought  in  ethical  and  religious  matters 
characterizes  the  graduates  of  secular  governmental 
universities  in  India  and  Japan  to  such  a  degree  that 
the  crudest  speculations  of  the  agnostic  and  material- 
istic school  are  often  received  as  the  maturest  wisdom 
of  the  Occident.  The  native  reformers  of  Bengal, 
under  the  lead  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  are  protest- 
ing with  not  a  little  success  against  the  complete 
secularization  of  the  courses  of  university  studies  in 
India. 

10.  Scipio  Africanus  never  began  any  public  enter- 


RELIGION   IN   COLLEGES.  161 

prise  of  importance  without  first  going  to  the  Capi- 
tol and  sitting  some  time  alone,  receiving,  as  he 
thought,  coinmunications  from  the  gods.  This  pa- 
gan, one  of  the  very  noblest  of  the  Romans,  con- 
queror of  Hannibal,  his  daughter  the  mother  of  the 
Gracchi,  moved  through  his  crowded  and  tumultuous 
life  in  the  atmosphere  of  secret  prayer.  I  keep  a 
marble  antique  bust  of  Scipio  Africanus  in  my  par- 
lor, and  every  day  it  is  an  inspiration  to  me,  —  the 
scar  on  the  forehead,  the  massiveness  of  the  head,  the 
uprightness  of  the  look,  the  wary,  searching,  terrible 
Roman  courage  of  the  man !  Nothing  apologetic  or 
craven  about  him,  nothing  unbalanced,  nothing  de- 
ceitful, his  soul  a  globe  of  intense  white  fire  !  He 
would,  as  I  believe,  have  been  a  Christian,  and  even 
a  devout  student  of  the  innermost  mysteries  of  Chris- 
tianity, if  it  had  been  presented  to  him.  Mr.  Emer- 
son objected  strenuously  to  the  abolition  of  devo- 
tional public  exercises  in  colleges.  Hegel  called 
prayer  the  highest  act  of  the  human  spirit. 

Let  us  unhesitatingly  give  the  leadership  of  the 
highest  education  in  the  world  to  Him  who  was  man 
at  his  climax,  and   so  bring  the  whole  earth  into 
God's  bosom  !     [Loud  applause.] 
11 


LECTURE   IV. 
woman's  work  for   woman   in  ASIA. 

In  the  Southern  Pacific  Ocean,  as  I  was  pacing  the 
deck  of  my  ship  and  looking  toward  the  Fiji  Islands, 
I  was  told  on  indisputable  authority  that,  in  this 
paradise  of  the  great  deep,  young  girls  were  once 
fattened  and  sold  in  the  public  market  as  stall-fed 
cattle,  for  food. 

We  are  informed  by  entirely  trustworthy  African 
travelers  that  sometimes,  when  a  king  of  the  tropical 
regions  of  the  Dark  Continent  dies,  a  river  is  turned 
out  of  its  course  by  artificial  means,  a  deep  and  broad 
excavation  dug  in  its  dry  channel,  a  score  or  more  of 
the  king's  male  servants  beheaded  at  the  edge  of  this 
pit,  and  another  score  of  human  beings,  called  his 
"V^ives,  put  into  the  pit  alive.  A  platform  of  wood 
supporting  the  dead  body  is  then  constructed  above 
them,  and  other  wives  are  placed  on  the  platform, 
clasping  the  limbs  of  the  corpse.  The  earth  is  then 
shoveled  into  the  pit  upon  all  this  palpitating  mass 
of  humanity,  and  the  river  is  brought  back  to  its 
course. 

Such  is  or  was  recently,  the  condition  of  women 
under  the  darkest  shadows  of  paganism ;  but  in  In- 
dia, under  enlightened  government,  multitudes  of 
women  are  in  a  condition  scarcely  less  horrible. 


WO>IA>'S    WOEK   FOE   WOMA>'    IN    ASIA.  163 

According  to  an  authentic  and  most  recent  official 
statement,  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  there  are  21,000,- 
000  of  widows  in  India,  and  half  of  these  were  never 
wives.  Even  under  the  rule  of  a  Christian  empress, 
paganism  makes  the  condition  of  widows  in  India  so 
desolate  that  it  is  a  common  remark  among  Hindus 
that,  as  a  fate  for  a  young  woman,  the  old  form  of  im- 
molation by  fire  is  preferable  to  enforced  widowhood. 
Distressing  beyond  our  conception  must  be  a  Kfe  com- 
pared with  which  suttee  is  a  blessing ;  and  yet  suicides 
are  occurring  in  India  almost  every  week,  prompted 
onlv  bv  the  terrible  sufferincrs  incidental  to  widow- 
hood  enforced  by  law  and  social  custom. 

How  early  may  a  Hindu  girl  be  married  ?  At  eight 
years,  perhaps  earlier.  She  may  be  betrothed,  possi- 
bly, when  she  is  in  her  cradle.  Her  intended  husband 
is  oft^n  an  aged  Brahmin,  who  soon  dies.  But  the 
Hindu  rule  is  that,  if  the  person  to  whom  the  girl  is 
betrothed,  and  whom,  it  may  be,  she  has  never  seen, 
dies,  the  girl  must  remain  a  widow  for  life.  The  the- 
ory is  that  it  is  honorable  in  a  woman  to  do  all  she 
can  for  the  preservation  of  the  health  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  temporal  and  spiritual  prosperity  of 
her  husband.  If  evil  befalls  him,  suspicion  fastens 
upon  her;  if  he  dies,  the  extreme  Hindu  teaching  is 
that  it  is  right  to  treat  her  with  disrespect,  and  that 
all  the  honor  you  give  the  husband  should  rebound 
as  dishonor  shown  to  his  widow.  The  multitude  of 
widows  who  never  were  wives  shows  how  many  per- 
sons betrothed  have  been  separated  by  death  before 
marriage  occurred. 

Among  orthodox  Hindus,  the  widow  must  take  off 


164  ORIENT. 

her  ornaments  and  sell  them  to  maintain  herself.  She 
must  *'eat  her  jewels."  I  do  not  affirm,  by  any 
means,  that  these  rules  of  pagan  orthodoxy  are  always 
carried  out  to-day  with  the  higher  classes  of  Hindus ; 
but,  with  250,000,000  of  people  in  Hindustan,  there 
are,  excUiding  Mohammedans,  probably  150,000,000 
among  whom  such  rules  are  very  thoroughly  followed. 
When  the  widow  has  "  eaten  her  jewels,"  she  may 
be  supported  by  the  family  to  which  she  belongs,  but 
not  before.  Even  when  the  time  comes  in  which  she 
may  legally  be  supported,  she  is  expected  to  practice 
very  frequent  fasts.  The  rule  is  that  she  shall  take 
but  one  meal  a  day.  Whether  ill  or  well,  when  her 
fast-day  occurs,  she  must  abstain  wholly  from  food 
for  twenty -four  hours.  She  shaves  her  head.  A 
Hindu  woman  is  naturally  proud  of  the  glorious  or- 
nament of  her  black  tresses,  and  when  she  loses  them 
and  all  her  ornaments,  she  is  degraded  in  social 
standing,  — not  in  the  sense  of  dropping  into  infamy, 
but  she  becomes  almost  a  chattel  in  a  family.  She  is 
really  the  drudge  of  the  household  in  which  she  ob- 
tains a  precarious  support.  She  may  be  kicked  and 
cuffed ;  she  may  be  thrust  into  corners  with  the  rats 
and  bats  and  the  rubbish  of  the  house ;  she  may  be 
made  to  undergo  the  severest  physical  labor  of  which 
she  is  capable.  All  this,  in  most  cases,  does  not 
touch  at  all  the  pride  of  the  head  of  the  household, 
nor  his  sympathy.     She  is  a  widow ;  she  is  a  thing. 

In  many  places  in  Northern  India  I  saw  little 
white  stone  monuments  at  prominent  spots  on  hill- 
slopes  and  in  the  vicinity  of  temples,  and  occasion- 
ally by  the  sea-shore.    These  memorials  were  erected 


woman's   work   for   woman   in    ASIA.  165 

in  honor  of  those  who  had  performed  suttee  ;  that  is, 
to  widows  who  had  burned  themselves  on  the  fune- 
ral pyres  of  their  husbands.  A  certain  holy  dignity 
was  supposed  to  belong  to  this  act.  A  lady  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  opportunities  of  observation  which 
I  had  in  the  East  was  told  by  a  cultured  Hindu  gen- 
tleman in  Bombay  that  in  very  many  cases  suttee  is 
undoubtedly  preferable  to  enforced  widowhood;  and 
that,  as  the  government  forbids  suttee  and  does  not 
forbid  enforced  widowhood  or  child  marriages,  an  old 
remedy  for  one  of  the  miseries  of  Hindustan  has 
been  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  its  population !  A 
remark  of  that  kind  may  be  a  bubble,  indeed,  but  it 
shows  which  way  terrible  currents  of  distress  run. 
Suttee  has  destroyed  its  thousands,  but  the  custom  of 
child  marriages  its  tens  of  thousands. 

The  British  government  ought  to  prohibit  child 
marriages,  as  it  did  suttee.  It  should  prohibit  them 
as  it  did  the  crushing  of  men  and  women  under  the 
wheels  of  the  car  of  Juggernaut.  It  should  prohibit 
them  as  it  did  the  exposure  of  the  aged  and  of  the 
very  sick  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  and  the  filling 
of  their  mouths  and  nostrils  with  the  sacred  mud, 
even  before  life  was  extinct,  and  occasionally,  no 
doubt,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  life  to  an  end. 
Just  as  the  British  government  has  prohibited  thug- 
gery and  hook-swinging,  so  the  best  reformers  are 
now  claiming  it  might  and  ought  to  prohibit  the  child 
marriages,  which  are  the  pedestal  on  which  enforced 
widowhood  stands. 

If  the  noble  constituency  of  the  various  American 
women's  missionary  societies  should  unite  with  their 


166  ORIENT. 

English  and  Scottish  coadjutors  in  sending  to  her 
Britannic  Majesty  a  memorial  urging  the  prevention 
of  child  marriages  in  India  by  the  law  of  the  empire, 
they  would,  in  my  judgment,  be  doing  not  only  a 
benevolent  but  also  a  timely  and  dignified  act. 

It  will  be  said  that  the  British  government  in  In- 
dia has  deliberately  adopted  the  policy  of  neutrality 
in  regard  to  the  religion  of  its  subjects.  Child  mar- 
riages and  enforced  widowhood,  however,  are  no 
more  a  part  of  Hindu  religion  than  were  suttee  and 
hook-swinging  and  exposure  under  the  wheels  of  the 
car  of  Juggernaut.  Government  abolished  the  latter, 
and  has  thus  set  a  precedent  which  may  be  followed 
in  the  abolition  of  the  former.  In  the  Native  Con- 
verts' Remarriage  Act,  the  British  government  of 
India  distinctly  disregards  Hindu  custom  and  law  by 
giving  Christian  women  the  opportunity  of  securing 
a  divorce  and  the  right  of  remarriage.  There  is  thus 
opened  to  wives  a  privilege  which,  according  to 
Hindu  law,  had  belonged  only  to  husbands.  Many 
njemorialists,  among  whom  are  hundreds  of  native 
gentlemen  and  a  large  number  of  missionaries,  Eng- 
lish, Scotch,  German,  and  especially  American,  ask 
the  government  to  follow  up  this  precedent.  Child 
marriages,  in  certain  circumstances,  might  be  treated 
only  as  betrothals.  The  government  is  hindered  from 
taking  an  active  part  in  the  abolition  of  child  mar- 
riages, not  by  the  want  of  power,  but  chiefly  by  the 
fear  of  venturing  on  a  step  which  might  cause  com- 
motion in  British  India.  (See  President  Woolsey 
on  Christianity  and  Child  Marriages  in  India,  the 
"  Independent,"  December  21,  1882.) 


woman's  work  for  woman  in  ASIA.         167 

It  is  impossible  to  speak  frankly  on  many  delicate 
portions  of  my  theme  this  morning  ;  but  who  doubts 
that  child  marriages  explain  a  portion  of  the  phys- 
ical weakness  of  the  Hindus?  Who  doubts  that 
this  race,  which  came  from  the  northwest  side  of 
the  Himalaya  Mountains,  and  belongs  to  the  same 
stock  with  ourselves,  would  be  developed  under  far 
more  favorable  circumstances  for  the  production  of 
strength  if  child  marriages  were  abolished  ? 

The  seclusion  of  woman  in  zenanas  is  so  rigid  that 
medical  science,  as  well  as  instruction  in  Christianity, 
ought  to  be  carried  to  the  doors  of  Hindu  house- 
holds by  women. 

A  man  is  not  consulted  as  a  physician  by  a  woman 
in  a  Hindu  household.  You  find  some  of  the  poorer 
classes  of  the  Hindus  ready  to  go  to  the  hospitals 
that  the  missionaries  open,  and  obtain  medicine ;  but, 
as  a  general  rule,  a  Hindu  woman  had  rather  die 
than  receive  assistance  from  a  man  as  a  physician,  at 
least,  if  the  assistance  requires  that  he  should  enter 
the  zenana,  the  sacred  female  apartments  of  the 
Hindu  home.  An  American  medical  missionary  was 
not  long  ago  called  on  to  save  the  life  of  a  wife  of  a 
prominent  Hindu  gentleman,  after  the  native  physi- 
cians had  failed  to  be  of  service.  He  could  not  see 
the  patient ;  he  was  refused  admission  to  the  zenana. 
Finally,  as  the  case  was  urgent  and  as  the  head  of 
the  household  had  a  somewhat  unusual  freedom  from 
Hindu  prejudices,  the  physician  was  permitted  to 
go  into  the  room  where  the  woman  lay  ill.  She 
stretched  her  arm  through  a  curtain.  He  was  not 
allowed  to  feel  the  pulse ;   but  the  husband  felt  it, 


168  ORIENT. 

under  the  direction  of  the  physician,  and  thus  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  information  was  obtained  in  dubious 
style.  A  slit  was  cut  in  the  screen,  and  the  poor 
patient  made  to  protrude  her  tongue  through  it ;  and 
so  the  physician  obtained  further  knowledge  as  to 
her  physical  state,  prescribed  the  proper  remedies, 
and  her  life  was  sayed.  But  that  husband  would 
rather  have  seen  his  wife  on  her  funeral-pile  than 
have  allowed  this  missionary  to  see  her.  Who  can 
remedy  these  terrible  mischiefs  endured  by  women  in 
Asia,  except  female  medical  missionaries  ?  They  are 
wanted  throughout  all  India.  They  are  wanted  in 
large  numbers.  An  angel  from  heaven  itself,  as  has 
been  often  said,  would  not  be  welcomed  in  many 
Hindu  zenanas  more  cordially  than  a  well-instructed 
female  physician. 

There  comes  a  new  life  into  a  household,  and  in 
those  sacred  hours  when  a  mother  trembles  between 
this  world  and  the  next,  she  is  usually  treated  like  a 
thing,  even  in  the  best  orthodox  pagan-Hindu  fami- 
lies. She  is  put  into  the  worst  room,  probably,  and 
for  days  and  weeks  no  one  is  allowed  to  go  near  her. 
The  air  of  the  room  may  be  like  that  of  a  miniature 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  and  yet  there  is  no  attempt 
made  to  purify  it.  She  has  only  coarse  food.  Any 
touch  of  this  mother  by  other  members  of  the  house- 
hold is  pollution.  Many  lives  have  been  lost  simply 
by  this  barbaric  exposure  under  circumstances  when 
all  human  instincts  called  for  the  use  of  the  highest 
medical  skill.  Send  India,  then,  medical  missiona- 
ries, equipped  with  the  best  learning  of  our  Occi- 
dental science ;   send  medical  missionaries,  femalea, 


woman's   work   for   woman   in  ASIA.  169 

with  their  hearts  aflame  with  the  Gospel ;  and,  be- 
yond any  doubt,  you  will  be  doing  for  India  what 
Christ  our  Lord  meant  that  his  disciples  should  do, 
when  he  said  to  them  :  "  Heal  the  sick,  preach  the 
Gospel."  The  two  duties  go  together,  and  we  are  to 
follow  them  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Among  the  evils  of  woman's  condition  in  Asia,  I 
ask  you  to  keep  long  and  often  in  your  thoughts  the 
almost  total  neglect  of  the  education  of  'daughters  ; 
the  arbitrariness  of  divorce ;  the  bondage  to  coarsest 
and  severest  physical  toil ;  infanticide,  especially  in 
China ;  the  binding  of  the  feet  of  Chinese  women  ; 
the  vices  of  the  scoundrel  whites  in  the  sea-ports  of 
the  Orient ;  and  lastly,  polygamy. 

The  chief  remedies  for  the  evils  of  woman's  condi- 
tion in  Asia  are  zenana  teaching  by  female  mission- 
aries ;  homes  for  temporary  assistance  to  women ;  fe- 
male medical  missionaries ;  female  schools  ;  admission 
of  women  to  university  examinations ;  abolition  of 
child  marriages  by  law ;  a  pure  gospel  taught  to  the 
whole  community;  native  helpers  in  abundance;  and 
new  fashions  set  by  imperial  courts  and  by  the  upper 
classes. 

The  Parsees  of  Bombay,  a  remnant  of  the  old  Per- 
sians, are  beginning  to  educate  their  daughters  almost 
as  thoroughly  as  their  sons.  Throughout  Asia  the 
cry  is  rising  that  women  must  be  taught  the  elements 
of  education.  The  most  surprising,  and  perhaps  the 
most  significant,  increase  in  missionary  work  in  India 
in  the  past  decade  has  been  in  the  department  of 
woman's  work.  Not  only  have  four  new  ladies'  so- 
cieties entered  the  field  since  1871,  but  there  has 


170  ORIENT. 

been  an  amazing  development  of  indigenous  work- 
ers. In  1871  there  were  947  native  Christian  female 
agents  engaged  in  missionary  work.  In  1881  there 
were  no  less  than  1,944.  The  number  of  European 
and  Eurasian  ladies  reported  is  541.  The  successors 
of  Lydia  and  Priscilla  and  Phebe  and  Persis  and  the 
daughters  of  Philip  already  outnumber  the  586  men 
who  not  many  years  ago  monopolized  the  use  of  the 
title  "  missionary."  The  progress  of  zenana  work  has 
been  astonishing.  Ten  years  ago  Bengal  had  more 
zenana  pupils  than  all  the  rest  of  India  put  together. 
Now  the  Northwest  provinces  have  the  largest  num- 
ber of  this  class  of  pupils.  The  total  number  of  fe- 
male pupils  has  increase(J  from  31,580  to  65,761. 

It  is  not  enough  to  send  female  physicians  to  India. 
A  sufficient  number  of  native  women  must  be  taught 
medical  science,  to  make  the  supply  of  female  native 
physicians  unfailing.  A  most  hopeful  scheme  is  now 
being  discussed  in  Bombay  for  the  opening  of  the 
great  medical  colleges  of  India  to  women,  and  for 
the  founding  of  hospitals  under  the  exclusive  care 
of  female  physicians  of  the  very  highest  qualifica- 
tions. Women  who  enter  the  career  of  physicians 
must  be  able  to  compete  with  men.  Their  training 
and  knowledge  must  be  such  as  no  rival  can  bring 
into  discredit. 

A  new  leader  of  reform  has  lately  appeared  in  In- 
dia, in  the  person  of  a  learned  young  Brahmin  widow, 
Rama  Bhai,  whose  eloquence  holds  great  audiences 
spell-bound  in  Bombay  and  Poonah  and  other  im- 
portant cities,  as  she  dwells  on  the  education  of  fe- 
males, the   remarriage  of  widows,  the  folly  of  the 


woman's  work  for  woman  in  ASIA.  171 

caste  system,  and  the  evils  of  child  marriages.  Since 
the  Ganges  began  to  roll,  no  such  figure  as  Rama 
Bhai  has  been  reflected  in  its  waters  ! 

Japan,  however,  has  gone  further  of  her  ov^^n  im- 
pulse in  the  direction  of  education  for  woman  than 
any  other  Asiatic  country,  and  the  reform  has  there 
the  patronage  of  the  highest  persons  in  the  court. 
The  Empress  of  Japan,  who  is  childless,  is  making 
herself  the  patroness  of  female  education.  Most  of 
the  great  missionary  bodies  are  opening  vigorous 
schools  for  young  women. 

Consider  how  vast  Asia  is,  and  how  populous  with 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  little  children,  as  innocent 
and  sunny-eyed  as  your  own.  Imagine  yourselves 
moving  along  the  Asiatic  coast  from  Arabia  to  Japan, 
and  entering  the  crowded  sea-ports,  at  the  mouths  of 
the  giant  rivers.  After  five  lectures  in  four  consecu- 
tive days,  under  a  vertical  sun  and  to  great  assemblies, 
in  the  rustling  paradise  of  Ceylon,  I  left  that  island 
on  the  last  day  of  March,  less  than  a  year  ago,  and 
soon  found  myself  in  the  mighty  port  of  Singapore, 
near  the  Equator.  Blue  Sumatra  lay  in  the  distance; 
Borneo,  with  its  pagan  tribes  and  its  birds  of  para- 
dise, was  not  far  away.  British  fleets  were  there, 
almost  a  squadron  of  powerful  vessels,  laden  with 
the  products  of  the  East  Indies.  A  similar  sight  met 
me  in  the  majestic  harbor  of  Hong-kong.  British 
power  is  visible  in  half  the  outlooks  on  any  coast 
of  the  globe,  in  the  ocean  highways  in  the  Eastern 
hemisphere.  And  so,  pausing  at  Canton  and  giving 
there  a  lecture,  I  drifted,  after  nearly  a  month's  voy- 
age, into  Japan  —  an  idyl  of  Nature  seen  in  the  idyl- 


172  ORIENT. 

lie  season  of  Ma3\  There  was  much,  of  course,  to 
give  cheerfulness  ;  much  to  awaken  encouraging 
thought  as  to  the  future  of  Asiatic  reform  ;  but  as  I 
coasted  along  Ceylon,  and  the  Malay  penmsula,  and 
vast  China,  day  after  day,  1  seemed  to  hear  across 
the  roar  of  the  waves  the  turbulent  sound  of  the  bil- 
lows of  humanity,  breaking  with  a  wail  on  the  stern 
coasts  of  our  yet  barbaric  days.  Three  hundred  mil- 
lion human  billows  in  China,  half  of  them  women  ; 
two  hundred  and  fifty  million  such  billows  in  India, 
multitudes  upon  multitudes  coming  out  of  the  unseen 
and  storming  across  the  ocean  of  time  to  break  on 
the  shores  of  eternity !  The  sound  of  that  sea  was 
a  wail  from  servile  labor,  and  from  the  loftiest  ca- 
pabilities of  souls,  dwarfed  by  ignorance  and  false 
faiths,  and  from  infanticide,  polygamy,  concubinage, 
enforced  widowhood,  and  many  a  nameless  condition 
preventing  the  development  of  woman  into  the  an- 
gelic being  she  is  by  nature,  even  without  education. 
I  heard  the  wail  of  these  waves  until  I  found  myself 
resolved,  whatever  else  I  might  do  or  might  not  do, 
^o  echo  the  sound  of  that  ocean  in  the  ears  of  Chris- 
tendom, until,  if  God  should  permit,  some  adequate 
enthusiasm  for  the  reform  of  woman's  condition  in 
the  Orient  is  awakened  in  the  Occident.  Every  city 
of  50,000  inhabitants  in  America  and  Europe  ought 
to  send  one  female  missionary  into  pagan  lands. 

Put  female  education  in  Japan  into  the  hands  of 
Almighty  God,  and  under  his  guidance  the  reform  in 
that  empire  may  become  the  day-star  of  the  amelio- 
ration of  woman's  condition  throughout  the  millions 
of  Asia.     The  wail  of  the  billows  of  humanity  in  In- 


woman's  work   for  woman   in   ASIA.         173 

dia,  in  Ceylon,  in  the  Malay  peninsula,  in  Asia  at 
large,  especially  in  China,  in  the  East  Indies,  in  the 
Fiji  Islands,  and  even  in  the  Dark  Continent,  may 
one  day  turn  into  a  shout  of  rejoicing.  Provided  only 
that  the  Occident  does  its  duty,  this  transition  may 
be  swift.  But  if  the  wail  goes  on  for  a  century  or 
two  more,  I  believe  it  will  sound  in  our  ears  at  the 
Judgment  Day.  We  have  power  to  send  medical 
missionaries  to  these  populations ;  we  have  power  to 
send  both  secular  and  sacred  education  to  women 
throughout  Asia.  He  who  knoweth  to  do  good,  and 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  a  sin.  Let  this  stern  truth 
sound  in  the  ears  of  sensitive  women  !  Let  it  sound 
in  the  ears  of  strong  men  !  Let  it  fill  the  whole  at- 
mosphere of  Occidental  Christendom,  until  we  are 
aroused  to  make  God's  opinion  our  own  as  to  what 
should  be  done  for  women  in  Asia,  Africa,  and  all 
the  isles  of  the  sea ! 


GLIMPSES   OF  THE  CANTONESE. 

Canton,  April  15. 
Cantok  is  approached  from  Hong-koiig  by  river 
steamboats  through  ninety  miles  of  bold  and  beauti- 
ful Chinese  scenery.  Sailing  northward  from  near 
the  equator,  it  was  exceedingly  delightful  to  find 
April  like  itself,  after  having  found  January  like 
July.  The  cool  northeast  winds  were  blowing  from 
the  mountains  above  Hong-kong  harbor,  and  the  ver- 
nal sun  flashing  over  its  mixed  azure  and  amber  as 
we  moved  briskly  across  it  and  into  the  magnificent 
breadth  of  the  Canton  River  toward  the  north.  Bold 
hills  against  the  horizon ;  green  rice  lands  next  the 
stream  ;  flocks  of  brown  and  gray  Chinese  junks 
,basked  in  the  windy  sunshine.  On  many  hills  we 
saw  pagodas.  Several  of  these  towers  had  shrubs 
and  small  trees  growing  on  their  ruinous  summits. 
This  was  the  China  of  my  dreams,  although  the  de- 
cayed aspect  of  these  religious  structures  was  a  sur- 
prise. 

The  hills  recede  farther  from  the  shore,  the  wet 
rice-fields  broaden,  islands  appear  now  and  then  in 
the  stream,  and  finally,  far  toward  the  north,  two 
spires  and  several  towers,  rising  from  a  long  strip  of 
low  huddled  houses  against  the  sky,  are  pointed  out 
to  us  as  Canton.     We  are  soon  abreast  of  the  centre 


GLIMPSES    OF   THE   CANTONESE.  175 

of  this  far  from  spectacular  irmnicipality,  and  find  it 
looking  like  several  square  miles  of  the  outskirts  of 
New  York,  or  of  the  wooden  suburbs  of  Chicago. 
The  houses  are  rarely  more  than  one  story  high,  and, 
at  a  distance,  as  well  as  near  at  hand,  not  a  little  un- 
couth, poverty-stricken,  and  barbaric.  Boats  dart  to 
and  fro  on  the  river.  Whole  families  live  in  small 
craft  not  twenty  feet  long.  Junks  of  ancient  fash- 
ion are  mingled  with  those  of  more  modern  shape. 
Several  vessels  of  considerable  size  are  decorated  with 
flowers,  and  we  learn  that  they  are  devoted  to  infa- 
mous purposes.  There  are  no  carriages  in  Canton, 
no  horses,  no  bullocks  on  the  streets,  and  even  no 
hand  carriages  in  general  use. 

As  soon  as  we  arrive  we  are  assailed  by  the  bearers 
of  sedan  chairs,  and  our  captain  has  already  recom- 
mended to  us  a  guide  who  goes  before  us  in  a  special 
chair.  A  man  weighing  more  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds*  usually  has  four  coolies,  who  groan  a 
little  as  they  adjust  their  bare,  lemon-colored  shoul- 
ders to  the  poles  and  straps.  We  are  soon  in  the 
midst  of  a  maze  of  narrow  lanes  from  six  to  ten  feet 
wide,  and  fronted  on  every  hand  by  the  multiplex 
shops  of  the  ingenious  and  industrious  Chinese. 

Workers  in  tin  and  brass,  and  iron  and  wood,  ply 
their  trades  almost  within  touch,  as  we  are  borne 
along  through  the  crowds  in  the  resounding  alleys. 
Here  are  markets  with  dried  fish  and  strange  fruits, 
shops  exposing  tempting  arrays  of  jewelry,  precious 
stones,  especially  the  Chinese  jade,  book-shops,  tai- 
lors' establishments,  music  stores,  collections  of  curios, 
and  every  now  and  then  a  pagan  temple.     We  feel 


176  ORIENT. 

ourselves  in  the  midst  of  a  human  hive  filled  with 
the  busiest  kind  of  bees,  going  in  and  out,  each  laden 
with  some  form  of  honey  or  wax.  The  cells  are  nar- 
row ;  the  passages  generally  are  crowded ;  there  is  a 
universal  hum. 

No  city  I  have  ever  visited  resembles  Canton, 
though  there  are  streets  in  Venice  nearly  as  narrow 
and  as  crowded  with  shops  as  these.  Take  hoofs  and 
wheels  out  of  a  city,  and  passageways  need  not  be 
broad  and  may  easily  be  kept  clean,  as  they  are  here. 
Odors  of  sandal-wood  fill  the  air  in  various  places 
which  we  pass.  There  are  certain  strange  smells  in 
the  poorest  quarters.  These  are  often  offensive  ;  but, 
on  the  whole,  the  better  parts  of  Canton  are  remark- 
ably tidy  for  quarters  so  constantly  overcrowded. 

Gay  banners  hang  in  front  of  the  shops,  and  bear 
in  Chinese  characters  the  often  grandiloquent  names 
of  the  establishments.  As  the  eye  becomes  accus- 
tomed to  the  dim  whirl  of  novelties  and  begins  to 
notice  details,  the  plan  of  the  shops  is  seen  to  be  sim- 
ple and  convenient.  The  wide  fronts  are  left  open 
for  light.  The  buildings  are  usually  of  one  story, 
with  lofty  tile  saddle  roofs.  In  these  there  are  fre- 
quently large  openings,  which  admit  a  flood  of  light 
and  fresh  air  to  the  interior.  The  shops  are  deep, 
and  run  back  into  various  recesses,  of  which  a  few 
glimpses  obtained  give  the  observer  a  desire  to  see 
more,  they  are  so  neat,  comfortable,  and  often  elegant 
in  appearance,  A  counter  usually  stands  to  the  right 
as  you  enter.  A  row  of  seats  on  the  left,  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  first  room,  forms  another  counter.  Not 
far  from  the  rear  counter  there  is  a  religious  shrine, 


GLIMPSES   OF   THE   CANTONESE.  177 

at  which,  at  night,  a  lamp  is  kept  burning.  Often 
there  is  a  gallery,  with  ornamental  balustrade  under 
the  tall  roof. 

Received  most  cordially  by  those  who  are  devoting 
their  lives  to  the  religious  regeneration  of  China, 
our  social  duties  and  one  or  two  public  appearances 
take  much  time,  but  we  managed  to  study  very  care- 
fully, and  with  the  best  of  personal  assistance,  the 
Temple  of  the  Five  Hundred  Genii,  of  the  Five  Genii, 
and  of  the  combined  Buddhist,  Taoist,  and  Confu- 
cian worship,  called  the  Temple  of  Horrors,  as  also 
the  water  clock,  military  headquarters,  and  the  great 
Examination  Hall.  Perhaps  the  most  sumptuous  ar- 
chitecture and  costly  apartments  we  saw  in  any 
buildings  were  in  the  Mercantile  Club  Rooms.  These 
are  unmixedly  Chinese  in  design  ;  but,  except  the 
ugly  and  loathsome  dragons,  they  were  not  unpleasing 
to  our  western  and  perhaps  rather  relaxed  standards 
of  taste.  The  heavy  black  wood  furniture,  the  canoe- 
shaped  roofs,  the  sacred  mottoes  in  gilt  letters  on  red 
ground,  the  paintings  of  storks  and  flowers,  all  seemed 
to  justify  themselves  by  their  merits. 

In  the  hall  of  Five  Hundred  Genii,  rude  busts  of 
distinguished  men  stand  in  long  rows.  Incense  is 
burned  before  them.  The  heads  are  all  of  Chinese 
type,  round  and  somewhat  lacking  in  height.  It 
would  be  tedious  to  describe  in  detail  the  uncouth 
images  in  the  temples,  or  the  worship,  if  such  it  could 
be  called,  which  we  saw  people  offering  before  them. 
The  Chinese  suppliant  shakes  a  set  of  bamboo  sticks 
in  a  box  as  one  might  rattle  arrows  in  a  quiver  until 
one  drops  out.     On  this  is  a  certain  number  which 

12 


178  ORIENT. 

he  carries  to  an  official  in  the  temple,  who  finds  in  a 
large  collection  of  written  prayers  another  number 
corresponding  to  it.  This  prayer  the  suppliant  takes 
to  some  soothsayer  or  fortune  teller  and  has  it  inter- 
preted. If  the  wishes  of  the  worshiper  are  not  met 
by  the  interpretation,  he  often  goes  back  to  the  box 
and  shakes  out  another  prayer,  and  repeats  this  pro- 
cess until  he  obtains  the  answer  he  desires.  Thus 
the  pagan  petition  to  an  idol  is,  "  My  will,  not  thine, 
be  done." 

The  Examination  Hall  interested  us  as  one  of  the 
chief  doorways  to  the  Chinese  aristocracy.  Twelve 
hundred  students  can  be  shut  up  here,  each  in  his 
brick  cell,  about  five  feet  deep  by  four  wide  and 
seven  high.  Each  is  expected  to  write  in  a  given 
time,  without  assistance,  a  valuable  essay  on  some 
text  of  the  Chinese  classics  or  other  assigned  theme. 
Out  of  some  1,000  who  entered  at  the  last  examina- 
tion, only  120  passed  successfully. 

The  last  meal  I  took  in  China  was  with  a  distin- 
guished native,  who  had  founded  a  Christian  college 
'and  was  a  millionaire.  He  had  bird's-nest  soup  for 
breakfast,  each  cup  of  which  cost  five  dollars,  and 
each  guest  had  two  cups.  His  house  was  palatial  in 
its  appointments.  He  was  a  man  of  vigor  as  well  as 
of  refinement,  of  large  quantity  as  well  as  of  excel- 
lent quality ;  speaking  English  brokenly,  but  a  prince 
in  his  manners.  China  contains  a  large  number  of 
persons  of  that  type.  I  once  heard  General  Grant 
affirm  that  the  three  ablest  men  he  saw  abroad  were 
Bismarck,  Gladstone,  and  Li  Hung  Chang,  prime 
minister  of   China.      I   found  China  close   at  hand 


GLIMPSES   OF   THE   CANTONESE.  179 

looking  as  if  she  might  be  able  ultimately  to  insist 
on  the  keeping  of  treaties  with  even  domineering 
Britain  and  haughty  America. 

The  Chinese  are  the  most  interesting  objects  in 
China.  In  a  gnarled  oak  the  roughnesses  and  protu- 
berances are  naturally  noticed  earlier  than  the  sound, 
strong  timber  at  the  heart  of  the  tree.  In  the  British 
character,  for  example,  pugnacity,  self-assertion,  ego- 
tism, force  themselves  early  on  the  attention  of  the 
observer ;  but  he  who  studies  the  Englishman  thor- 
oughly will  find  sound  timber  underlying  a  some- 
what forbidding  exterior  growth.  So  with  the  China- 
man, one  sees  his  faults  more  readily  than  his  virtues. 
The  general  failures  in  a  nation's  effort,  century  after 
century,  to  attain  the  highest  well-being  are  indica- 
tive of  the  average  defects  in  the  character  of  its  citi- 
zens. China  makes  progress  up  to  a  certain  point, 
and  there  pauses  and  petrifies  in  egotistic,  unimagi- 
native conservatism.  Industrial  arts  have  flourished 
in  China,  but  have  never  attained  there  the  highest 
efflorescence  and  fruitfulness.  The  Chinese  brain  is 
fine-grained,  but  not  large.  It  is  fairly  symmetri- 
cal, but  is  rarely  massive.  On  the  average  it  lacks 
height.  The  Chinaman  is  ingenious,  patient,  mild ; 
but  in  the  loftier  departments  of  imaginative  and  re- 
ligious activities  of  soul  he  is  often  prosaic  and  sec- 
ond rate.  The  chief  faults  of  the  Chinese  character 
are  unprogressiveness,  self-satisfaction,  narrowness  of 
intellect,  and  thorough-going  secularity.  The  chief 
virtues  are  filial  piety,  mildness  of  temper,  persever- 
ance, ingenuity,  and  worldly  shrewdness. 

China   has    educated   in    the    Occident  so    many 


180  ORIENT. 

young  men  who  are  now  rising  to  positions  of  influ- 
ence in  the  Celestial  Empire  that  she  very  soon  will 
have  leaders  who  will  understand  and  defend  her 
rights  under  Christian  international  law  and  be  able 
to  protect  her  citizens  from  injustice  at  home  and 
abroad. 

When  Constantinople  and  Bombay,  Calcutta  and 
Shanghai  shall  once  be  connected  by  railways,  it  will 
be  possible  to  make  a  tour  of  the  world  in  six  weeks. 
A  fortnight  will  cover  the  distance  from  San  Fran- 
cisco to  London  ;  a  fortnight  that  from  London  to 
Yokohama ;  a  fortnight  that  from  Yokohama  to  San 
Francisco.  China  will  ultimately  be  traversed  by 
great  and  prosperous  railways.  Offers  to  open  iron 
roads  are  even  now  being  pressed  upon  the  govern- 
ment at  Pekin  by  various  competing  European  syn- 
dicates. 


V. 

JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT 
NATION. 

WITH  A  PRELUDE   ON 

FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF  AMERICA. 

THE    ONE    HUNDRED    AND    SIXTY-FIRST    LECTURE    IN    THE 

BOSTON    MONDAY    LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED  .IN 

TREMONT    TEMPLE,    MARCH    14,     1883. 


"  Every  four  years  there  springs  from  the  vote  created  by  the  whole 
people  a  President  over  the  United  States.  I  thinlc  the  world  offers 
no  finer  spectacle  than  this  ;  it  offers  no  higher  dignity.  If  there  be 
on  earth  and  amongst  men  any  divine  right  to  govern,  surely  it  rests 
with  a  ruler  so  chosen,  and  so  appointed." — John  Bright. 

"  Almost  all  travelers  are  struck  by  the  fact  that  every  American  is 
in  some  sense  both  a  patriot  and  a  person  of  cultivated  intelligence. 
No  such  wide  diffusion  of  the  ideas,  tastes,  and  sentiments  of  edu- 
cated minds  has  ever  been  seen  elsewhere,  or  ever  conceived  of  as  attain- 
able. Yet  this  is  nothing  to  what  we  might  look  for  under  a  govern- 
ment equally  democratic  in  its  unexclusiveness,  but  better  organized 
under  a  graduated  suffrage,  assigning  to  education  as  such  the  de- 
gree of  superior  influence  due  to  it."  "Political  life  is  indeed  in 
America  a  most  valuable  school,  but  it  is  a  school  from  which  the 
ablest  teachers  are  excluded,  the  first  minds  in  the  country  being  as 
effectually  shut  out  from  the  national  representation  and  from  public 
functions  generally  as  if  they  were  under  a  formal  disqualification." 
— John  Stuaet  Mill. 


'  "  The  educational  system  of  Japan  is  the  best  in  the  world." —  Gen- 
eral Grant. 

*'  Whoever  would  see  the  Eastern  World  before  it  turns  into  a 
Western  World  must  make  his  visit  soon."  —  Daniel  Webster: 
TTie  Landing  at  Plymouth. 


PRELUDE   V. 
FOREIGN  CRITICISM  OF  AMERICA. 

Average  Britons  reverence  pedigree ;  average 
Americans,  performance :  the  highest  Britons,  ances- 
try ;  the  highest  Americans,  achievement. 

There  are  two  Britains  and  two  Americas  —  a  tory 
and  a  republican  England,  as  there  was  once  an  oli- 
garchic American  government  under  the  slave  power 
and  a  republican  government  in  opposition  to  it.  In 
our  Civil  War  very  few  in  England  understood  that 
there  were  two  Norths  and  two  Souths.  There  are 
an  Americanized  England  and  an  Anglicized  Amer- 
ica, but  the  former  enlarges  its  boundaries  more  rap- 
idly than  the  latter. 

The  tory  England  of  the  privileged  classes  and  cer- 
tain sides  of  American  fashionable  society  sympathize 
closely  with  each  other,  as  do  republican  England  and 
our  most  progressive  American  reformers.  Neverthe- 
less, as  Charles  Sumner's  experience,  first  as  an  ex- 
tremely ardent  admirer,  and  finally  as  a  most  vehe- 
ment and  searching  critic  of  England,  shows,  even 
the  best  classes  of  the  Anglo-American  world  often 
most  seriously  misunderstand  each  other  in  great 
matters,  in  spite  of  the  speed  and  fullness  of  intercom- 
munication between  England  and  America  in  our 
brisk  day. 


184  ORIENT. 

It  is  a  little  amazing  to  open  an  English  historian 
like  McCarthy  and  read  that  during  our  Civil  War 
those  who  endeavored  to  show  that  it  was  not  easy  to 
find  a  convenient  dividing  line  for  two  confederations 
on  the  North  American  Continent  were  commonly 
answered  that  the  Mississippi  formed  exactly  a  suita- 
ble boundary.  It  was  an  article  of  faith  with  some 
Englishmen  who  then  most  eagerly  discussed  seces- 
sion that  the  Mississippi  flowed  east  and  west  and 
separated  neatly  the  seceding  states  from  the  states 
of  the  North.  [Laughter.]  This  was  the  wisdom  of 
a  certain  portion  of  London  club  life.  (See  "  History 
of  Our  Own  Times,"  by  McCarthy,  vol.  ii.  chap, 
xliv.)  John  Bright  used  to  say,  during  the  hot 
contest  against  slavery,  that  every  morning  the  lead- 
ing newspapers  of  London  went  into  the  streets  of 
Europe  to  curse  the  American  Republic.  It  was  a 
liberal  British  politician  who  declared  that  the  Re- 
publican bubble  had  burst.  Lord  Russell  spoke  of 
our  war  as  a  contest  in  which  the  North  was  striv- 
ing for  empire  and  the  South  for  independence.  Mr. 
Gladstone  himself  once  said  that  Jefferson  Davis  had 
made  an  army,  a  navy,  and  a  nation.  There  were 
three  Englands  during  our  Civil  War  —  that  of  the 
operative  and  middle  classes,  usually  for  us ;  that  of 
society  in  London  and  the  shop-keeping  class,  depend- 
ent on  society,  usually  against  us ;  and  then  the 
government,  strictly  so  called,  which  never  took  for- 
mal ground  in  favor  of  the  South,  but  seemed  at  sev- 
eral times  on  the  very  point  of  doing  so.  The  densest 
ignorance  was  found  not  with  the  operatives,  who  in 
Lancashire  endured  a  cotton  famine,  rather  than  as- 


FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF   AMERICA.  185 

sist  in  breaking  the  blockade  of  the  Southern  States  ; 
not  with  the  middle  class,  represented  by  a  John 
Bright  or  a  Stuart  Mill ;  but  with  the  haughty  fas- 
tidiousness of  London  luxurious  circles ;  and  even 
with  the  "  Thunderer,"  which,  whenever  it  spoke  on 
American  affairs,  was  commonly  a  blunderer.  [Laugh- 
ter.] The  British  government  itself  was  often  ex- 
ceedingly in  need  of  information ;  for  instance,  when 
President  Lincoln  issued  the  emancipation  proclama- 
tion, the  only  ofl&cial  reply  made  by  England  to  that 
great  act  of  our  nation  was  that  it  could  not  be  made 
clear  to  British  common-sense  why  we  emancipated 
the  slaves  in  precisely  those  States  where  we  had  no 
power  to  carry  out  the  proclamation,  and  did  not 
emancipate  them  in  the  States  of  which  we  already 
had  military  possession.  [Laughter.]  That  was  one 
of  the  sapient  remarks  of  Earl  Russell  himself.  Two 
English  noblemen  were  once  standing  before  Michael 
Angelo's  statue  of  Moses,  which  was  intended  for  the 
tomb  of  Julius  IL,  and  one  of  them  asked :  ''  Why 
should  Julius  IL  be  represented  with  horns  ?  "  The 
other  replied  :  "  They  were  a  peculiarity  of  the  Sforza 
family."  No  less  a  man  than  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 
as  we  one  day  launched  our  small  steam-vessel  on 
the  Ganges,  turned  to  his  American  guest  and  asked  : 
"Have  you  any  rivers  in  America  as  large  as  this?  " 
[Laughter.]  I  might  have  told  him  that  it  is  a  fact 
of  physical  geography  that  the  seven  largest  rivers  of 
Asia  —  the  Oby,  the  Amoor,  the  Hoangho,  the  Yang- 
tse-kiang,  the  Yenesei,  the  Indus,  and  the  Ganges  — 
taken  together,  do  not  carry  to  the  ocean  as  much 
water  as  the  Amazon  alone.     Fearful  of  falling  un- 


186  ORIENT. 

der  suspicion  of  exaggeration,  I  was  silent ;  for  I  re- 
membered that  Mr.  Spurgeon  once  showed  me  in  his 
study  two  pamphlet  cases  with  the  peculiar  titles  : 
"  Bull  on  Bragging  "  and  "  Jonathan  on  Exaggera- 
tion."     [Laughter.] 

In  discussing  foreign  criticisms  of  the  United 
States,  my  object  is  not  to  annoy  either  our  critics  or 
ourselves ;  but  to  strike,  if  possible,  a  fair  balance 
between  the  ignorant  and  the  wise  criticisms  and 
between  justifiable  and  unjustifiable  self-estimation. 
Notice,  first,  a  few  points  in  the  list  of  not  very 
ignorant,  unfavorable  criticisms  of  America  by  for- 
eigners. 

1.  Our  newspaper  press  is  deeply  colored  by  our 
national  and  local  peculiarities,  good  and  bad  ;  but  as 
yet  more  thoroughly  by  the  latter  than  the  former. 
Nevertheless,  although  it  nowhere  represents  ade- 
quately our  best  traits,  we  are  justly  proud  of  it,  on 
account  of  the  merit  of  its  upper  portion.  There  is, 
however,  a  long  tail  to  the  kite  of  American  journal- 
ism, and  a  considerable  portion  of  it  is  bedraggled 
ty  the  gutters.  I  have  no  patience  with  third  and 
fourth-rate  American  journalism  ;  nor  with  our  peo- 
ple for  having  patience  with  it.  I  am  proud  of  first 
and  often  of  second-rate  American  journalism  ;  but 
I  am  ashamed  of  our  people  for  not  giving  our  best 
newspapers  as  good  a  support  as  they  give  to  fifth- 
rate  and  sometimes  to  seventh-rate  effort  in  the  news- 
paper world.  Allow  me  to  say  that  I  hope  I  do  not 
lack  appreciation  for  our  best  newspapers.  They 
pay  more  for  news  than  the  British  newspapers  do. 
American  first-class  newspapers  seem  to  me  to  he  su- 


FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF   AMERICA.  187 

perior  to  the  British  in  the  discovert/  of  news,  while 
the  British  are  superior  to  the  Americans  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  it. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  compare  the  journalism  of 
the  outskirts  and  edges  of  the  British  Empire  with 
that  of  the  frontiers  of  the  American  Union.  I  con- 
fess I  am  somewhat  humiliated  by  being  obliged  to 
admit  that  I  think  the  British  Empire  throws  the 
blood  of  its  heart  out  into  its  finger-tips  more  thor- 
oughly than  we  do  the  blood  of  the  best  parts  of  our 
civilization  into  the  finger-tips  of  our  frontiers.  The 
newspapers  of  Australia  are  better  than  those  of  our 
Pacific  slope.  Look  at  this  superb  daily  journal 
from  Sydney,  in  New  South  Wales,  Australia,  the 
"Herald"  [unfolding  a  paper  before  the  audience], 
and  which  is  called  the  "  Times  "  of  the  Southern 
Hemisphere.  The  moment  you  take  it  in  your  hand 
you  feel  that  here  is  a  very  different  stock  of  paper 
from  that  which  usually  goes  into  even  our  best 
American  sheets.  You-  can  carry  that  newspaper 
around  the  world,  and  unfold  it  every  other  day, 
without  its  becoming  a  rag ;  but  there  are  many 
first-class  American  newspapers  which  you  cannot 
use  three  days  without  finding  them  drop  to  pieces, 
of  such  poor  quality  is  the  paper.  San  Francisco 
publishes  no  paper  equal  to  the  Sydney  "  Herald " 
or  the  Melbourne  "  Argus,"  both  of  them  provincial 
sheets  in  the  British  Empire.  The  mere  unprinted 
paper  of  the  Sydney  "  Morning  Herald  "  costs  two- 
pence half -penny,  and  the  paper  is  sold  for  two-pence 
—  that  is,  four  cents  —  the  income  being  derived 
largely  from  advertisements.     You  observe  that  this 


188  ORIENT. 

paper  does  not  display  its  advertisements  ;  they  are 
all  set  solidly,  an  indication  that  space  is  worth  some- 
thing in  this  sheet.  But  our  very  best  dailies,  with 
the  exception  of  about  three  in  New  York  and  two 
in  Chicago,  are  full  of  garishly  displayed  advertise- 
ments ;  and  what  shall  I  say  of  journals  in  other 
parts  of  the  country  ?  It  is  a  sign  of  wide  circula- 
tion in  a  journal  to  have  compact  advertising  col- 
umns, without  great  loss  of  space  occupied  by  scream- 
ing type.  ^ 

Our  dailies  are  improving  rapidly ;  perhaps  those 
of  Chicago  even  more  rapidly  than  those  of  New 
York.  It  does  not  become  me  to  criticise  the  Boston 
press,  for  the  best  representatives  of  which  I  have 
great  reverence.  I  wish  exceedingly  that  the  best  of 
our  newspapers  were  patronized  ten  times  as  well  as 
they  are.  They  deserve  an  immensely  larger  follow- 
ing than  they  have.  I  am  obliged  to  notice,  as  I 
travel  across  the  continent,  that  the  wings  of  Boston 
dailies  tire  beyond  the  Hudson.  Very  few  of  them 
fly  to  Chicago.  We  have  disadvantages  here,  because 
the  ocean  is  on  one  side  of  us  ;  we  can  send  a  daily 
only  one  wa}^  New  York  has  much  the  same  disad- 
vantage, in  spite  of  the  complexity  of  our  railway 
system  and  her  superior  facilities  for  gathering  news. 
Chicago  has  physically  great  advantages  for  the  pur- 
poses of  a  daily  newspaper,  as  it  can  send  one  four 
ways.  That  city  is  likely  to  be  the  newspaper  cen- 
tre of  the  country. 

You  say  British  newspapers  are  dull,  and  many  of 
them  are.  But  the  best  of  them  are  not  dull  to 
men  of  thought  and  action.     They  grapple  with  dif- 


FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF   AMERICA.  189 

ficult  subjects  ;  they  always  furnish  a  leader  or  two 
on  the  most  intricate  and  complex  matters  of  pub- 
lic interest.  Our  journalism,  I  fear,  is  open  to  criti- 
cism for  running  into  scrappy  discussions,  that  catch 
the  eye  of  the  multitude,  but  do  not  really  fix  the 
attention  of  educated  readers.  Our  dailies  are  not 
as  ready  as  the  best  parts  of  the  English  press  are 
to  discuss  difficult  themes  every  morning,  three  hun- 
dred days  of  the  year.  On  the  other  hand,  our  news- 
papers are  probably  more  entertaining  than  the  Eng- 
lish. It  will  not  do  to  speak  of  English  journalism  as 
all  of  it  dull,  because  there  is  a  class  in  society  that 
finds  mere  scrappiness  dull  and  thorough  discussions 
in  leading  articles  interesting.  Let  short  paragraphs, 
as  compact  and  incisive  as  sonnets,  be  made  numer- 
ous on  the  editorial  pages.  They  need,  nevertheless, 
to  be  accompanied  by  leading  articles  containing  a 
wider  sweep  of  information  and  argument,  and  them- 
selves as  compact  as  sonnets,  in  spite  of  length.  It 
is  said  that  such  articles  are  not  read  ?  Let  them  be 
on  the  most  strategic  and  blazing  of  current  themes, 
and  the  more  thorough  they  are  the  more  certain  are 
they  to  command  attention  by  rewarding  it.  There 
is  room  in  America  for  a  great  improvement  of  our 
discussion  of  the  news  which  we  gather  at  such  enor- 
mous cost.  Why  is  it  that  our  newspaper  editors 
do  not  oftener  remember  the  remark  of  the  pres- 
ent editor  of  the  "  Tribune,"  that  the  day  is  coming 
when  the  position  of  a  first-class  editor  will  be  more 
influential  in  the  United  States  than  that  of  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Cabinet  at  Washington  ? 

It  is  often  said  by  our  foreign  critics  that  we  are 


190  ORIENT. 

governed  by  newspapers  ;  but  my  reply  usually  has 
been :  "  No,  not  by  newspapers,  but  by  news,  which 
is  a  very  different  thing."  The  glory  of  our  press 
is  that  it  is  willing  to  expend  enormously  for  news. 
Its  chief  fault  is  that  it  does  not  discuss  this  news 
with  as  much  thoroughness  as  the  English  would  do, 
with  the  serious  purpose  of  leading  public  sentiment. 
Of  course,  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  arrange- 
ment of  our  politics  is  such  that  newspaper  polit- 
ical discussion  is  often  not  very  effective.  "  In  the 
United  States,"  says  Walter  Bagehot  in  his  admirable 
book  on  the  English  Constitution  (p.  22),  "  the  same 
difficulty  oppresses  the  press  which  oppresses  the  leg- 
islature. It  can  do  nothing.  It  cannot  change  the 
administration  ;  the  executive  was  elected  for  such 
and  such  years,  and  for  such  and  such  years  it  lasts. 
People  wonder  that  so  literary  a  people  as  the  Amer- 
icans —  a  people  who  read  more  than  any  people  who 
ever  lived  and  who  read  so  many  newspapers  — 
should  have  such  bad  newspapers.  The  papers  are 
not  so  good  as  the  English,  because  they  have  not 
tlie  same  motive  to  be  good  as  the  English  papers.  . .  , 
The  'Times'  has  made  many  ministries.  If  a  Wash- 
ington paper  could  have  turned  out  Mr.  Lincoln  there 
would  have  been  good  writing  and  fine  argument  in 
the  Washington  papers.  But  the  Washington  news- 
papers can  no  more  remove  a  president  during  his 
term  of  place  than  the  '  Times '  can  remove  a  lord 
mayor  daring  his  term  of  office.  Nobody  cares  for  a 
debate  in  Congress  which  comes  to  nothing,  and  no 
one  reads  long  articles  which  have  no  influence  on 
events.     The  Americans  glance  at  the  heads  of  news 


FOREIGN    CRITICISM   OF   AMERICA.  191 

and  through  the  paper.  They  do  not  enter  upon  a 
discussion.  They  do  not  think  of  entering  upon  a 
discussion  which  would  be  useless." 

Do  political  parties  own  newspapers?  Do  counting- 
rooms  put  ropes  around  the  necks  of  editors  ?  What 
the  people  want  in  a  newspaper  is  not  only  news, 
but  intellectual  and  moral  leadership.  The  chief 
writers  for  our  daily  press  are  brave  and  scholarly 
men,  but  they  seem  to  lack  a  large  portion  of  charac- 
teristic American  courage  in  their  discussion  of  issues 
unpopular  with  great  leading  parties  in  both  church 
and  state.  The  press  of  Chicago  criticises  our  East- 
ern press  for  timidity  in  presence  of  the  foremost  lit- 
erary, political,  and  religious  powers  in  society.  The 
East  values  newspapers  less  and  books  more  than  the 
West  does.  The  best  parts  of  the  Chicago  press  con- 
tain much  that  is  raw  and  crude,  and  sometimes  ut- 
terly vulgar.  The  leading  sheets  of  that  city  are  to 
be  praised  as  yet  chiefly  for  their  vigor  and  enter- 
prise. The  quality  of  the  journalism  of  Chicago  is 
by  no  means  equal  to  the  quantity  of  it ;  but  there  is 
improvement  in  it,  there  is  life,  there  is  courage,  and 
well  there  may  be,  on  account  of  the  geographical 
position  of  the  city,  which  is  the  queen  of  our  lake 
region  and  of  the  upper  half  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Sunday  editions  are  an  industrial  and  moral 
nuisance  with  which  first-class  English  dailies  almost 
never  trouble  their  printers  and  editors  and  the  pub- 
lic. Our  critical  weeklies,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, the  foreign  critics  sneer  at  mercilessly.  It  is 
amazing  that  with  53,000,000  of  people  here  and 
less   than  40,000,000  in   Great  Britain,  she   should 


192  ORIENT. 

look  in  vain  for  a  parallel  among  us  of  her  "  Spec- 
tator," or  "  Saturday  Review,"  or  "  Athenaeum." 
Her  great  quarterlies  she  thinks  superior  to  ours  in 
weight,  as  they  certainly  are  in  number;  but  I  never 
found  a  Briton  bigoted  enough  not  to  admit  that  our 
best  illustrated  monthlies  surpass  everything  of  their 
class  produced  abroad.  It  is  safe  to  assert  as  a  sum- 
mary that  there  is  much  more  room  than  is  popu- 
larly supposed  to  exist  for  the  improvement  of  both 
American  and  British  journalism,  through  the  imita- 
tion by  each  of  the  best  traits  of  the  other. 

2.  What  is  to  be  said  of  American  manners  from 
the  point  of  view  of  our  foreign  critics  ?  "  Webster," 
said  Thomas  Carlyle,  writing  to  Emerson,  "is  a  dig- 
nified, perfectly  bred  man,  though  not  English  in 
breeding."  ("  Correspondence  of  Carlyle  and  Emer- 
son," vol.  i.  p.  248.)  Far  be  it  from  me  to  assume  that 
American  manners  must  be  moulded  exclusively  by 
British  or  French  or  German  or  Italian  ideals.  We 
are  the  foremost  Christian  republic  of  all  time,  and 
soon  to  be  the  wealthiest,  as  we  are  already  the  most 
progressive,  of  the  nations.  We  have  a  right  to  a 
standard  of  manners  of  our  own  ;  but  we  are  most 
certainly  open  to  criticism  yet,  as  we  were  in  the 
days  of  Charles  Dickens's  first  visit,  as  to  a  number 
of  large,  avoidable  mistakes  in  the  field  of  man- 
ners. How  shall  I  introduce  the  distasteful  topic 
on  which  Dickens  spoke  so  frankly,  and  which  Mr. 
Emerson  called  "  a  fury  of  expectoration  ?  "  This  is 
a  most  persistent,  but  let  us  hope  not  an  incurable, 
American  disease.  There  is  not  a  cuspidor  in  the 
public  rooms  of  the  House  of  Commons,  nor  in  the 


FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF  AMERICA.  193 

hall  where  the  members  sit.  I  have  been  in  many  a 
great  English  hotel,  in  which  I  have  looked  in  vain, 
outside  the  smoking-room,  which  I  never  visit, 
for  one  of  those  characteristic  American  utensils. 
[Laughter.]  What  would  a  senator  from  Congress 
do  in  Parliament  ?  This  disease  of  ours  results 
partly  from  our  climate,  no  doubt,  which  is  drier 
than  that  of  England.  Miners  and  ploughboys  in 
Australia  fall  into  this  American  habit.  The  cli- 
mate there,  at  least  in  the  central  portion  of  that 
continental  island,  is  very  dry.  We  have  a  reputa- 
tion for  excelling  all  civilized  populations  in  coarse- 
ness in  this  matter.  You  would  no  more  think  of 
seeing  in  a  first-class  hotel  in  England  or  in  the  House 
of  Commons  or  Lords,  —  whatever  may  be  the  case  in 
the  smoking-rooms  on  either  side  the  main  floor,  — 
one  of  these  utensils  than  you  would  think  of  seeing 
one  in  a  church  here.  The  fact  that  we  can  manage 
our  churches  properly  shows  that  we  could,  if  we 
would,  manage  other  places  properly.  It  is  afiirmed 
on  the  authority  of  official  statistics  that  Russians 
and  Britons  consume  annually  only  one  pound  of  to- 
bacco per  individual,  but  that  Americans  consume 
three  pounds,  —  that  is,  about  six  pounds  per  man, 
not  per  woman,  thank  Heaven  !  [Laughter  and  ap- 
plause.] There  is  a  certain  lawlessness  about  our 
habits  in  regard  to  our  use  of  the  weed  which  our 
continent  gave  -to  the  world  that  I  have  not  seen 
elsewhere,  unless  it  be  in  the  ruder  portions  of  Ger- 
many. Certainly  in  England  well-dressed  persons 
are  more  cautious  about  invading  the  rights  of  others 
through  the  use  of  this  weed  than  they  are  here. 

13 


194  OKIENT. 

If  a  man  smokes  or  chews  tobacco,  and  you  af- 
firm that  he  has  a  right  to  do  so,  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  he  has  a  right  to  make  me  smoke  by 
smoking  in  my  face,  or  to  offend  a  whole  company  of 
people  in  a  railway  carriage,  or  even  on  the  street, 
by  a  display  of  his  offensive  habit.  [Applause.]  I 
am  ashamed  of  the  good-nature  of  Americans  on  this 
point.  We  ought,  as  Herbert  Spencer  told  us,  to  be 
a  little  more  ready  to  growl  in  the  English  fashion  in 
regard  to  small  but  real  invasions  of  propriety,  and 
we  shall  be  ready  to  do  this,  no  doubt,  as  soon  as  our 
population  is  more  dense  and  it  begins  to  cost  more 
to  let  infelicities  run  their  course.  We  shall  arrest 
them  when  it  is  necessary  to  do  so.  Every  genera- 
tion our  ministry  is  taking  a  higher  and  higher  posi- 
tion on  the  matter.  There  are  a  number  of  confer- 
ences of  our  powerful  Methodist  Church  that  will  not 
now  ordain  a  man  who  is  an  habitual  user  of  tobacco. 
[Applause.]  The  greatest  orator  of  Boston  and  of 
the  United  States  I  once  heard  say  that  he  hoped  the 
^time  would  come  when  no  gentleman  would  smoke 
on  the  public  streets.  [Applause.]  For  one,  I  echo 
that  sentiment  of  Mr.  Phillips,  and  I  wish  we  might 
have  a  far  sterner  public  sentiment  on  this  matter, 
not  merely  among  men  but  among  ladies.  If  the 
gentler  half  of  our  population,  the  fastidious  half, 
will  assert  its  rights  with  a  little  bit  of  queenhness, 
men  who  have  good  habits  will  be  immensely  encour- 
aged, and  men  who  have  bad  will  be  made  to  feel  the 
pressure  of  discouragement.      [Applause.] 

3.  De  Tocqueville  thought  that  the  bad  manage- 
ment of  our  great  cities  will  ruin  us  ultimately  unless 


FOREIGN  CRITICISM  OF  AMERICA.  195 

we  keep  a  large  standing  army  to  govern  them. 
This  sentiment  is  heard  constantly  among  our  for- 
eign critics. 

4.  The  corruption  of  our  civil  service  is  a  theme 
on  which  it  seems  as  if  Von  Hoist,  author  of  the 
most  pessimistic  European  criticism  of  us  written  of 
late,  must  have  been  sent  here  to  find  ground  for  un- 
favorable opinions.  I  do  not  know  that  this  author 
was  subsidized  by  anybody  in  Germany  to  find  out 
our  faults  and  disgust  Europe  with  American  institu- 
tions, but  if  he  had  been,  his  employers  would  have 
had  reason  to  be  highly  satisfied  with  the  results  of 
his  work.  Let  us  study  Von  Hoist,  although  he 
gives  an  hundred  pages  to  the  political  chicanery  of 
a  Martin  Van  Buren,  and  hardly  half  a  dozen  to  the 
great  constitutional  arguments  of  Webster  against 
the  doctrines  of  the  South  as  to  nullification  and  se- 
cession. 

5.  Bondage  to  the  uneducated,  to  illiterate  voters 
or  to  the  half-educated  —  this  is  the  sternest  of  Amer- 
ican woes,  as  our  haughtiest  foreign  critics  think.  In 
view  of  the  extent  of  our  illiteracy,  it  is  difficult  to 
show  that  there  is  not  yet  in  this  country  something 
like  bondage  to  illiteracy.  In  spite  of  the  merits  of 
our  common-school  system,  our  illiteracy  is  so  great 
that  in  many  closely-contested  elections  we  are  liter- 
ally under  bondage  to  the  uneducated  or  half-edu- 
cated. 

6.  Sharp  dealing  and  distrust  Charles  Dickens 
thought  the  worst  vices  of  American  commercial,  po- 
litical, and  even  social  life.  When  Richard  Grant 
White  was  on  the  tower  of  Windsor  Castle  one  day 


196  ORIENT. 

("  England  Without  and  Within,"  by  Richard  Grant 
White,  p.  155),  the  old  keeper  there  pressed  cer- 
tain attentions  on  him,  which  the  musing  traveler 
tried  to  shake  off.  "  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  the 
keeper,  "  but  I  think  you  must  be  an  American 
gentleman.  I  should  not  have  thought  it  if  you  had 
not  been  so  suspicious.  American  gentlemen  are  al- 
ways suspicious,  .  .  .  being  so  accustomed,  you  see, 
sir,  to  be  taken  in  at  home."  [Laaghter.]  A  more 
just  or  acute  remark  than  this  has  not  often  been 
made  concerning  our  characteristic  American  mental 
attitude. 

Every  man  here  is  his  own  manager,  every  man 
his  own  protector.  It  is  characteristic  of  our  alert, 
pushing,  fairly  well-educated,  shrewd  American  that 
the  look  of  his  eye  is  :  "  Cheat  me  if  you  can." 
[Laughter.]  Far  more  often  do  you  find  this  look 
here  than  abroad.  It  is  a  good  thing,  this  self-reli- 
ance, if  it  do  not  degenerate  into  self-assertion.  It  is 
a  good  thing,  this  acute  caution,  if  it  do  not  become 
mere  suspiciousness.  It  is  charged  against  us  that 
we  are  more  shrewd  than  conscientious  in  the  colli- 
sions of  trade  and  politics.  It  is  affirmed,  and  with 
some  truth,  I  fear,  that  there  is  among  Americans  a 
tendency  to  sharp  dealing  in  little  things  that  is  not 
found  in  British  and  German  society.  Undoubtedly 
there  is  rascality  enough  in  the  British  Islands,  and, 
indeed,  more  physical  brutality  than  here  ;  but  many 
an  American  critic  has  admitted  that  there  is  less 
sharp  dealing  in  small  matters.  In  Great  Britain 
everj^thing  centres  in  London,  and  if  a  rascal  is  found 
out  anywhere  in  the  islands,  he  is  gazetted  in  the 


FOREIGN   CRITICISM   OF  AMERICA.  197 

great  metropolis ;  while  here  you  may  know  in  one 
city  that  a  man  is  a  rascal,  but  not  be  able  to  pro- 
claim the  fact  easily  in  any  one  of  a  dozen  cities  to 
which  that  man  may  flee.  There  is  opportunity  to 
bring  penalty  on  the  dishonest  man  in  Great  Britain 
that  there  is  not  here.  In  a  first  visit  abroad  I  twice 
found  my  American  bankers  falling  into  bankruptcy, 
and  when  I  went  abroad  the  last  time  I  had  an  Eng- 
lish banker ;  that  is,  I  depended  on  a  house  in  Lon- 
don. It  is  very  humiliating  to  be  obliged  to  make 
these  confessions  ;  but,  for  one,  I  have  come  home 
with  the  conviction  that  there  is  left  yet  some  room 
for  our  improvement  in  the  matter  of  honesty  in 
little  things.  An  American  may  be,  and  usually  is, 
the  soul  of  honor  in  great  things ;  but  we  allow  an 
amount  of  sharp  dealing  in  little  things  that  would 
disgrace  a  man  in  many  circles  abroad.  Do  not  say 
I  have  brought  a  railing  accusation  against  the  Amer- 
ican character  at  large.  We  are  more  enterprising 
than  any  other  people  ;  competition  is  fiercer  here 
than  anywhere  else  on  earth  ;  there  is  vastly  more 
opportunity  to  rise  here  than  elsewhere,  if  one  only 
has  self-reliance  and  capacity.  Temptation  to  sharp 
dealing  is  a  great  national  allurement  of  ours,  and 
should  be  resisted  with  all  the  sagacity  and  force 
of  the  American  character. 

7.  We  are  accused  of  having  a  fickle  temperament. 
Britons,  it  is  said,  bear  a  long  and  steady  strain  in 
commerce,  in  politics,  and  in  war  better  than  Ameri- 
cans. "  We  do  not  care  to  be  troubled  with  this 
theme  any  further,"  we  say  very  often  of  an  impor- 
tant but  wearisome  public  duty.     "  We  are  too  busy 


198  ORIENT. 

with  our  own  affairs  to  attend  to  it.  We  have  heard 
enough  of  it."  "  Let  us  not  have  this  man's  name  in 
the  newspapers  any  more."  "  Hush  up  the  matter. 
What  if  we  have  not  reached  the  truth  concerning  it 
as  yet?  We  have  no  time  to  investigate  it  thor- 
oughly. Let  it  drop."  This  comes  partly  from  Ameri- 
can overwork,  from  American  haste,  from  the  absorp- 
tion of  individuals  in  their  own  affairs,  where  all  have 
a  chance  to  rise ;  but  I  fear  there  is  in  our  tempera- 
ment a  certain  fickleness  which  proceeds  from  other 
causes. 

It  is  most  certain  that  the  physical  fibre  of  Amer- 
icans is  refined  by  our  climate.  The  magnetic  pole 
of  the  earth  is  in  the  forehead  of  this  continent. 
The  magnetic  intensities  of  our  latitudes  are  greater 
than  those  of  similar  parallels  abroad.  Our  climate 
is  drier,  and  for  this  and  a  multitude  of  other  reasons 
we  are  developing  something  of  the  Greek  tempera- 
ment and  the  Italian.  If  you  put  Greek  and  Italian 
finesse  with  Anglo-Saxon  daring,  may  God  have 
mercy  on  the  civilization  that  will  be  developed,  un- 
less Christianity  purifies  it !  Give  the  American  as 
much  conscientiousness  as  he  has  will  and  finesse, 
and  I  regard  him  as  incomparably  the  noblest  human 
creature  on  earth.  But  there  are  many  things  that 
develop  our  will  and  our  tendency  to  sharp  dealing 
more  rapidly  than  our  conscientiousness.  Our  very 
temperament  leads  us,  perhaps,  into  the  Greek  and 
Italian  quality  of  fickleness. 

Improved  fineness  of  fibre  may  explain  our  supe- 
rior capacities  for  art.  We  are  undoubtedly  devel- 
oping in  this  matter  far  more  rapidly  than  Britain 


FOKEIGN   CRITICISM   OF   AMERICA.  199 

ever  did,  and  are  surpassing  her  through  delicacy  of 
touch.  The  dangers  of  our  new  temperament  are 
numerous ;  but  its  blessings  are  very  great.  Amer- 
ican oratory  depends  on  it  to  a  large  extent.  We 
are  more  fluent  than  our  British  ancestors.  It  has 
been  said  that  whoever  is  brought  up  in  the  electric 
climate  of  our  country,  under  our  Northern  Lights, 
in  our  nearness  to  the  magnetic  pole  of  the  world, 
under  our  common-school  system  and  our  opportuni- 
ties for  political  advancement,  is  born  with  a  speech 
in  his  mouth  ;  but  if  a  Briton  is  born  with  a  speech 
in  his  mouth,  it  is  a  speech  with  a  stammer  in  it 
and  a  halt.  Nevertheless,  he  utters  very  good  sense 
usually,  and  there  is  in  him  capacity  for  a  long  pull 
and  a  strong  pull.  I  have  the  feeling  that  the  Briton 
is  our  superior  in  endurance,  while  we  are  his  supe- 
rior in  the  matter  of  incisiveness,  insight,  and  swift- 
ness in  presence  of  any  difficulty. 

"  The  new  times,"  says  Emerson  ("  Fortune  of  the 
Republic"),  "need  a  new  man,  the  complemental 
man,  whom  plainly  this  country  must  furnish.  Freer 
swing  his  arms  ;  further  pierce  his  eyes ;  more  for- 
ward and  forthright  his  whole  build  and  rig  than 
the  Englishman's,  who,  we  see,  is  much  imprisoned 
in  his  backbone." 

8.  We  are  criticised  for  having  too  little  original 
literature.  British  and  German  literary  circles  have 
a  mild  mania  for  something  in  poetry  and  prose  that 
is  distinctively  American.  We  are  savagely  criti- 
cised for  saying  "  I  guess,"  where  the  Englishman 
says  "  I  fancy."  It  is  enough  to  mark  us  in  the  eyes 
of  certain  critics  as  a  nation  of  Philistines  that  we 


200  ORIENT. 

"  guess,"  and  "  reckon,"  and  "  calculate."  Britons, 
who  forget  that  these  phrases  are  never  used  by  per- 
sons of  thorough  culture  and  careful  habits  of  speech 
among  us,  are  also  very  likely  to  forget  how  many 
millions  of  Englishmen  have  trouble  with  the  letter 
h.  The  American  vulgarism,  after  all,  although  its 
use  is  not  to  be  defended  for  an  instant,  was  once 
good  Chaucerian  English.  Six  times  in  as  many 
pages  of  "  Chaucer  "  I  found  this  American  phrase  : 

"  Her  yellow  hair  was  braided  in  a  tress, 
And  fell  adown  her  back,  a  full  yard  long,  I  guess." 

Our  American  colonies,  founded  just  after  Shake- 
speare's time,  brought  his  English  to  America,  and 
our  long  colonial  isolation  fixed  it  in  our  usage,  while 
British  English  has  been  Johnsonized  and  thereby 
not  improved.  American  English  to  this  day  is 
more  nearly  Shakespearean  than  British  English. 

9.  We  are  criticised  for  lack  of  participation  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Old  World.  We  are  said  to  have 
no  sympathy  with  the  struggles  of  weak  nations  out- 
side America.  Following  the  advice  of  Washington 
to  keep  out  of  entangling  foreign  alliances,  we  have 
rarely,  except  once,  in  the  case  of  Greek  indepen- 
dence, expressed  an  opinion  on  affairs  in  the  other 
hemisphere.  We  are  sharply  criticised  for  this  by 
the  best  English  and  German  philanthropists,  and 
especially  by  those  of  France,  for  France  has  made  it 
her  glory  to  help  weak  nations. 

10.  We  are  criticised  for  overwork  and  the  haste 
that  makes  waste.  Every  American,  so  Europe 
thinks,  is  born  half  an  hour  too  late,  and  is  trying  all 
his  life  to  make  up  lost  time.     This  is  Herbert  Spen- 


FOREIGN  CRITICISM  OF  AMERICA.  201 

cer's  criticism,  and  is  one  of  the  most  just  ever  passed 
upon  us. 

To  look,  now,  at  a  few  points  on  which  opinion 
is  divided  abroad,  I  will  mention,  first,  protection, 
which  the  mass  of  Britons,  of  course,  do  not  believe 
in.  If  you  are  ever  annoyed  in  British  society  by 
the  persistent  presentation  of  the  advantages  of  free 
trade,  turn  about  upon  your  critic  and  say  :  "  Free 
trade  may  be  a  very  good  thing  ;  but  do  you  believe 
in  free  trade  in  land  ?  "  [Laughter.]  That  ques- 
tion usually  staggers  a  Briton  like  a  cannon-ball 
amidships.  Several  of  the  great  states  of  Australia 
do  not  believe  in  free  trade  just  now,  although  10,000 
miles  of  ocean  between  England  and  Australia  con- 
stitute protection  for  these  colonies.  Americans  have 
the  advantages  of  free  trade  between  the  various 
States  of  the  Republic,  and  of  moderate  protection 
against  the  rest  of  the  world.  Opinion  is  divided  as 
to  the  separation  of  church  and  state,  but  the  most 
advanced  of  English  reformers  believe  in  the  Ameri- 
can ideal  on  that  matter. 

What  are  the  favorable  foreign  criticisms  on 
America?  Is  it  admitted  that  on  a  few  points  we 
have  indisputably  acquired  a  certain  superiority  to 
Europe  ?  In  machinery  we  are  confessedly  superior. 
For  nearly  every  purpose  to  which  labor-saving  ma- 
chines are  applied,  American  inventions  lead  the 
world.  Our  watchmakers  dazzle  the  Swiss  and  Eng- 
lish ;  our  cutlery  outsells  the  British,  even  in  Shef- 
field. The  London  *'  Times "  once  said  there  was 
not  a  more  amazing  outburst  of  genius  in  old  Greece 
in  the  matter  of  art  than  there  has  been  in  America 


202  ORIENT. 

in  the  matter  of  machinery.  It  is  confessed  that  our 
best  engraving  far  surpasses  the  English.  I  heard 
one  of  the  foremost  publishers  of  Edinburgh,  Mr. 
Nelson,  whose  name  is  held  in  honor  on  both  sides 
the  Atlantic,  say  he  could  find  nobody  in  the  British 
Islands  to  do  for  him  such  work  as  is  issued  every 
month  in  the  "  Century  "  and  in  "  Harper's  Maga- 
zine." Our  railways,  on  the  whole,  are  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  best  in  the  world,  although  Britons 
will  be  slow  to  adopt  our  system  for  their  small 
islands.  Where  there  must  be  great  rivers  of  night 
travel  flowing  constantly,  sleeping-coaches  must  be 
introduced ;  but  there  is  very  little  night  travel  be- 
tween even  London  and  Edinburgh,  and  so  there  are 
only  two  or  three  railway  lines  that  have  sleeping- 
coaches  in  Great  Britain.  The  compartment  coach 
has  advantages  of  its  own  in  a  mild  climate  like  that 
of  the  British  Islands.  The  American  system  of 
checking  luggage  is  the  best  in  the  world.  ^ 

Our  best  writers  of  monographs  in  science  have 
the  most  unfeigned  respect  of  the  leaders  of  science 
in  Europe.  For  example,  take  the  recent  essay  of 
Professor  Abbot,  of  Cambridge,  on  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel ;  take  certain  publications  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution ;  take  such  scientific  treatises  as  Professor 
Peirce  used  to  issue  in  astronomy  ;  take  the  very 
best  of  our  work  in  regard  to  electric  lighting,  and 
it  is  confessed  that  we  are  not  surpassed  even  in  the 
most  advanced  circles  of  science  abroad.  Our  com- 
mon-school system,  on  the  whole,  is  greatly  admired, 
though  probably  it  is  not  superior  to  that  of  Prussia, 
nor  to  that  which  England  and  Scotland  will  soon 


FOEEIGN   CRITICISM   OF   AMERICA.  203 

have.  The  aspiration  of  our  masses,  the  temperance 
reform,  the  absence  of  a  law  of  primogeniture  and 
of  a  hereditary  house  of  legislation,  our  just  land 
laws,  our  high  wages,  —  are  all  eulogized  abroad. 

The  best  way  to  decide  how  much  truth  there  is 
in  foreign  criticisms  of  America  is  to  notice  what 
your  own  secret  thoughts  are  as  you  return  to  your 
country  after  a  long  absence.  As  I  crossed  the  con- 
tinent lately  I  kept  a  blank  book  open  before  me,  in 
which  I  entered  on  the  right  hand  pages  what  I  ad- 
mired in  American  civilization,  and  on  the  left  what 
I  disliked.  A  very  singular  and  suggestive  manu- 
script thus  came  into  existence.  The  lists  which  I 
have  now  given  of  unfavorable  and  favorable  criti- 
cisms made  by  foreigners  are  almost  precisely  what 
my  criticisms  were  as  I  came  back  to  my  native 
land. 

America  has  ceased  to  be  excessively  sensitive  to 
European  criticism,  or  even  to  British.  The  poet 
Tennyson  said  to  an  American  Northern  gentleman, 
in  a  London  parlor,  during  our  civil  war :  ''  I  wish 
you  to  understand,  sir,  that  my  sympathies  and  those 
of  society  here  are  on  the  side  of  the  South."  "  I 
wish  you  to  understand,  sir,"  the  American  replied, 
"  that  we  of  the  Northern  States  do  not  care  where 
your  sympathies  lie.  We  expect  to  fight  this  war 
out  on  our  own  plan,  for  our  own  good  and  that  of 
the  human  race."  Tennyson  treated  his  acquaint- 
ance with  increased  respect  after  this  speech.  Amer- 
ica is  of  age.  Nevertheless,  in  Occident,  as  in  Ori- 
ent, the  worth  of  international  criticism  increases 
with  its  intelligence  so  rapidly  in  our  day  that  the 


204  ORIENT. 

wisdom  of  Robert  Burns  deserves  cosmopolitan  ap- 
plication ;  — 

"  O,  wad  some  power  the  giftie  gie  us 
To  see  ourselves  as  ithers  see  us  ; 
It  wad  from  mony  a  blunder  free  ufl. 
And  foolish  notion." 


LECTURE  V. 

JAPAN,   THE  SELF-EEFORMED  HERMIT  NATION. 

Physical  May  in  Japan  is  endlessly  beautiful ; 
but  her  spiritual  springtime  is  yet  more  fascinating, 
although  it  has  not  reached  May  yet,  but  is  in  early 
April.  How  swift  and  vast  the  change  from  her  re- 
cent hermit  January  and  February,  and  her  stormy, 
revolutionary  March !  Civilization  in  Japan  puts 
forth  buds  of  joyful  promise.  The  spring  brooks 
flash  and  foam  where  a  little  while  ago  the  land  was 
locked  in  the  snows  and  ice  of  feudal  politics  and  of 
traditional  religious  misbeliefs.  The  landscape  is  full 
of  pleasant  sights  and  sounds  and  odors.  Now  and 
then  the  song  of  birds  fills  the  fresh  air.  It  is  good 
to  be  in  Japan  in  the  vernal  season  of  the  regenera- 
tion of  an  empire,  and  to  have  opportunity  to  cast  a 
few  seeds  into  the  giant  virgin  furrows  of  reform, 
never  before  as  promising  as  now  in  the  Far  East. 

What  is  to  be  seen  in  the  land  of  the  Rising  Sun  ? 
A  nation  born  in  a  day.  What  are  the  chief  traits 
of  its  inhabitants  ?  Those  which  have  made  them  a 
population  of  artists  and  reformers. 

Approaching  Japan  from  the  west,  over  the  misty 
and  often  turbulent  Chinese  Sea,  you  awake  one 
bright  spring  morning  and  find  yourself  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  paradise  of  green,  conical  islands  which 


206  ORIENT. 

surround  the  harbor  of  Nagasaki.  The  celebrated 
missionary,  Xavier,  lived  and  labored  on  the  island 
of  Firando,  not  far  to  the  north.  You  are  soon  sail- 
ing close  under  Pappenberg,  the  Tarpeian  Rock  of 
Japan,  where,  in  1638,  hundreds  of  Japanese  Chris- 
tians, who  had  accepted  Xavier's  doctrine,  were  cast 
headlong  upon  the  tusks  of  the  reefs  at  the  foot  of 
the  precipices  and  into  the  sea.  The  birds  sing  audi- 
bly, in  spite  of  the  throbbing  and  the  clanking  of 
your  ship's  engines.  The  pines  seem  to  stand  as  sol- 
emn mourners  at  the  summit  of  the  cliff,  and  to  gaze 
in  perpetual  sadness  down  the  murderous  crags.  You 
repeat  Milton's  sonnet  on  the  massacre  of  the  Pied- 
montese,  and  cannot  deny  yourself  the  delight  of  an- 
ticipating the  ultimate  religious  regeneration  of 
Japan,  as  you  recall  the  heroism  of  her  early  Chris- 
tian martyrs,  when  as  yet  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury they  had  been  taught  only  the  corrupted  faith 
of  Rome. 

The  faces  of  many  aged  women  and  men  whom  I 
s?iw  in  Japan  interested  me  exceedingly  by  their 
thoughtfulness,  symmetry,  gentleness,  and  a  kind  of 
patient  force,  not  unaccompanied  by  a  considerable 
spiritual  elevation.  If  you  wish  to  know  the  real 
traits  of  a  people,  study  the  faces  of  its  men  and 
women  in  their  advanced  years,  before  the  strength 
of  the  body  has  begun  to  crumble,  and  when  ripeness 
of  the  soul  is  at  its  best.  I  think  the  faces,  especially 
the  eyes,  of  virtuous  people  in  advanced  life  among 
the  Japanese,  are  more  nearly  civilized  than  those 
of  any  other  population  I  saw  in  Asia.  The  eyes  are 
sensitive  and  sober,  penetrating,  and  usually  consci- 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT    NATION.      207 

entious,  fairly  forceful,  and  almost  never  arrogant  or 
evasive.  The  children  of  a  nation  do  not  reveal  its 
characteristic  traits  so  thoroughly  as  its  aged  people, 
for  their  faces  have  not  been  chiseled  by  the  experi- 
ences of  life.  One  finds  in  the  countenances  of  those 
who  have  fought  the  battle  of  their  earthly  careers 
the  marks  of  both  their  natural  and  their  acquired 
spiritual  postures  and  activities.  The  faces  of  its  old 
men  and  women  are  the  best  map  of  any  nation^ s  ca- 
pacity and  actual  life. 

The  islands  of  Japan  are  best  compared  to  those  of 
Great  Britain.  They  lie  off  the  coast  of  Asia,  much 
as  those  of  Britain  do  off  the  coast  of  Europe,  and  are 
not  far  from  the  same  size.  There  are  four  islands, 
however,  in  the  Japanese  group,  that  are  of  very 
considerable  extent.  The  central  and  largest  one  is 
rather  longer  than  Great  Britain.  From  its  extreme 
southern  portion  to  its  northernmost  point  its  length 
is  equal  to  the  distance  from  New  York  to  Chicago  ; 
from  the  tip  of  the  lowermost  of  the  four  large  islands 
to  the  tip  of  the  uppermost,  the  distance  is  that  from 
New  York  to  Omaha,  or  from  Edinburgh  to  Naples, 
in  a  straight  line. 

Passing  through  the  Straits  of  Shimonoseki,  any 
American  or  Briton  ought  to  hang  his  head,  for 
here,  in  gallant  self-defense,  a  Japanese  prince  re- 
sisted the  domineering  entrance  of  English  and  Amer- 
ican vessels  into  his  waters  ;  an  act  for  which  Japan 
was  obliged  —  not  merely  by  Englishmen,  but  by 
Americans  —  to  pay  a  large  indemnity.  After  any 
amount  of  intricate  lobbying,  it  appears  that  a  por- 
tion of  this  money,  now  amounting,  with  its  interest, 


208  ORIENT. 

to  $1,800,000,  is  likely  to  be  paid  back  by  our  Con- 
gress ;  but  a  larger  sum  than  goes  to  Japan  is  to  be 
given  to  tlie  ofi&cers  and  crew  of  the  vessel  that  we 
thrust  into  that  most  unrighteous  sea  fight,  or  will 
be  in  other  ways  retained  by  us.  The  Shimonoseki 
indemnity  was  wrung  from  Japan  by  a  process  no 
better  than  robbery.  Thank  Heaven  that  we  are 
doing  a  little  to  show  that  we  revere  justice !  Great 
Britain  has  done  nothing  in  the  matter  as  yet. 

The  Inland  Sea  of  Japan  is  a  gleaming  silver  and 
azure  plain,  200  miles  long,  surrounded  by  bold  and 
picturesque  hills  of  vivid  green,  and  dotted  with  hun- 
dreds of  islands  of  surpassing  beauty  in  their  forms, 
groupings,  and  verdure.  The  eye  never  wearies  of 
the  study  of  its  terraces  of  waving  wheat,  its  hill- 
sides clothed  in  thick  green  copse,  and  their  summits 
crowned  by  the  murmurous  gnarled  Japanese  pines, 
outlined  against  a  sky  as  soft  as  that  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Plainly,  this  land  has  never  been  ground  by 
glaciers.  Whoever  would  grasp  the  controlling  fact 
C9ncerning  Japanese  landscape  scenery  must  remem- 
ber that  the  islands  of  Japan  are  volcanic  in  their 
origin,  and  that  what  we  call  the  "  drift "  in  geology 
has  never  been  passed  as  a  gigantic  rasp  over  the 
conical  hills  thrown  up  by  force  of  earthquakes  and 
inner  fires.  Japan  is  part  of  a  mighty  submerged 
mountain-chain,  extending  from  the  Kurile  Islands 
far  southward,  and  lying  on  the  edge  of  a  great  de- 
pression in  the  sea-bottom.  There  are  twenty  active 
volcanoes  in  Japan,  and  several  more  in  the  Ku riles. 
The  chief  peculiarity  of  Japanese  scenery  is  that  the 
hills  have  not  been  worn  down  by  glacial  action,  ai^d 


JAPAN,   THE    SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      209 

SO  there  are  a  certain  sharpness,  symmetry,  and  name- 
less grace  in  Japanese  landscape  views  that  I  have 
not  found  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  The  tops  of 
the  hills  are  frequently  as  sharp  as  they  can  be  with- 
out land-slides.  Often  there  is  breadth  on  them  for 
but  one  row  of  pines.  When  a  delicate  haze  over- 
spreads the  landscape,  it  causes  the  hills  to  appear 
higher  than  they  are,  and  the  trees  on  their  tops  to 
look  unnaturally  large.  Japanese  landscape-painting 
has  been  criticised  for  making  trees  too  large  for  the 
hills  on  which  they  stand  ;  but  one  glance  at  the 
characteristic  scenery  around  the  Inland  Sea  shows 
that  what  appears  disproportioned  in  Japanese  rep- 
resentations of  landscape  is  really  a  close  copying  of 
Nature. 

Early  one  morning  you  are  looking  anxiously  to- 
ward the  east  for  a  first  view  of  Fuji-Yama  while  it 
is  wholly  covered  by  dark  gray  and  purple  clouds, 
which  become  fleecy  white  a  third  of  the  way  up  the 
arch  of  the  sky.  Gradually,  as  the  sun  beats  upon 
this  vaporous  eastern  wall,  it  falls  apart,  and  above 
it  looks  out  something  white  and  vast,  with  an  out- 
line that  does  not  crumble  in  the  sunlight.  This  is 
Fuji-Yama,  the  sacred  mountain  of  Japan.  You  will 
never  forget  its  glorious  height,  its  saintly  snows,  its 
dazzling  contrast  with  the  azure  behind  it,  nor  the 
fleecy,  multiplex  vapors  with  which  its  breast  is  en- 
swathed  and  its  feet  covered  down  to  the  very  edge 
of  the  far-flashing  sea  across  which  you  gaze  toward 
the  whole  celestial  vision.  When,  later,  you  turn 
northward  into  the  Bay  of  Yeddo,  you  see  nearly 
the   whole   outline    of  the  mountain   rising  against 

14 


210  ORIENT. 

the  sky,  like  an  open  inverted  fan.  Standing  wholly- 
alone,  and  having  an  altitude  of  over  14,000  feet, 
Fuji-Yama  draws  to  itself  from  all  Japan  admira- 
tion and  sometimes  adoration.  The  natives  really 
worship  it  as  itself  a  god,  and  not  merely  as  the 
Greeks  revered  Olympus  as  the  dwelling-place  of 
the  gods.  Fuji  is  said  to  have  risen  suddenly,  in 
the  third  century  before  Christ,  in  a  great  earth- 
quake, from  the  level  of  the  sea.  As  its  birth  was 
portentous,  it  may  well  have  originated  devout  awe 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  tottering  island  through 
whose  crust  it  shot  toward  the  sky. 

You  land  at  Yokohama,  a  beautiful  city,  partly  on 
a  sea-washed  plain,  partly  on  a  bluff,  and  your  chief 
anxiety,  after  twenty-seven  days  at  sea,  is  to  escape 
into  the  green  fields  as  soon  as  possible.  After  an 
outline  study  of  the  city,  you  employ  a  mellow,  sunny 
afternoon  in  a  rural  excursion,  which  turns  out  to  be 
idyllic.  I  must  show  you  the  land  and  people  before 
I  show  you  their  reforms,  and  I  ask  you  now  to  look 
upon  a  landscape  which  certainly  is  not  easily  matched 
a!nywhere  on  the  globe.  You  roll  smoothly  along  in 
your  man  carriages,  jiyirikishas^  which  are  simply 
magnified  children's  carts,  drawn  by  men —  Pullman 
cars.  You  look  abroad  over  the  blessed,  billowing 
grain,  and  remember  the  dearest  country  haunts 
with  which  you  are  familiar  on  the  other  side  of 
the  globe.  Fuji  gazes  at  you  from  the  west.  Mis- 
sissippi Bay  flashes  from  below  you  on  the  east. 
Here  are  the  waters  through  which  floated  the  ships 
of  our  American  Commodore  Perry,  who  was  sent  to 
Japan,  in  1853,  by  Daniel  Webster,  the  first  of  our 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-EEFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      21 1 

statesmen,  to  insist  on  the  opening  of  Japan  to  West- 
ern commerce  and  the  earliest  circle  of  that  typhoon 
of  reform  which  has  since  swept  over  the  empire. 
On  this  shore  stood  the  natives,  who  thought  Perry's 
steamers  were  imprisoned  volcanoes.  At  the  edge  of 
these  waters,  in  1854,  he  set  up  a  mile  of  telegraph 
wire,  and  had  a  locomotive  put  into  action  on  an  iron 
track.  You  pluck  familiar  flowers  of  the  temperate 
zone  in  a  walk  through  the  green  fields.  Here  are 
white  clover  and  red,  the  violet,  the  dandelion,  and 
the  wild  strawberry.  The  cherry  blossoms,  so  prom- 
inent in  Japanese  art,  are  but  a  little  past  their  prime, 
while  the  camelias  and  the  azaleas,  in  the  fullest  blaze 
of  their  beauty,  are  drinking  the  mild  sunbeams  and 
the  fresh  sea-wind.  At  the  foot  of  the  bluff  your 
jinrikishas  roll  through  a  picturesque  village,  and  fol- 
low smooth  roads  back  to  Yokohama,  through  won- 
derfully verdant  landscapes  of  rice-fields  and  pine-clad 
hills.  Many  of  the  slopes  are  covered  with  thickets 
of  the  most  graceful  bamboos,  and  now  and  then  you 
see  a  somewhat  chilled  and  undergrown  palm.  The 
wheat-fields  rustle  on  the  right  and  on  the  left.  The 
pine-trees  sing.  The  sunlight  falls  as  a  benediction 
on  land  and  sea.  You  seem  to  hear  a  tremulous  ce- 
lestial music  in  the  sky  between  Fuji  and  the  great 
deep.  Looking  up,  you  find  that  your  fancy  has  not 
misled  you.  Far  above  the  green,  solemn  country, 
are  floating  in  the  sea-breeze  Japanese  kites,  with 
^olian  attachments,  raining  down  a  concord  of  sweet 
sounds  —  now  low,  now  loud,  now  apparently  near, 
and  now  distant,  but  always  mysteriously  ravishing 
to  the  ear  and  soul.     Poems  have  been  written  by 


212  ORIENT. 

scores,  in  many  languages,  to  express  the  mysterious 
meanings  of  the  music  of  an  jEolian  harp;  but  of 
all  positions  in  which  this  most  pathetic  and  touch- 
ing of  musical  instruments  can  be  placed,  the  best 
is  in  the  evening  twilight  and  the  fragrant  winds 
of  spring,  far  aloft  between  the  sea -shore  and  the 
stars. 

In  spite  of  the  fascinations  of  the  theme,  I  have 
no  time  to  pause  on  Japanese  art  further  than  to  say 
that  I  believe  that  since  the  old  Greeks  there  has 
been  no  nation  that  has  had  a  larger  spark  of  celes- 
tial genius  in  this  matter  than  the  Japanese.  Al- 
ready their  art  is  coloring  more  or  less  many  portions 
of  Occidental  art.  Probably  no  one  school  in  art  has 
done  more  to  acquire  a  cosmopolitan  influence  during 
the  last  thirty  years  than  that  of  Japan.  No  people 
known  to  history  has  ever  exhibited  a  more  intense 
love  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  than  the  Japanese. 
The  native  encyclopaedias  are  accustomed  to  point 
out  the  fine  scenes  of  the  noblest  cities,  lakes,  and 
n^ountains.  You  bathe  in  Lake  Biwa ;  and,  opening 
a  native  description  of  that  wonderful  sheet  of  water, 
you  find  much  mention  made  of  its  eight  beauties. 
No  Greek,  Roman,  German,  or  English  eyes  taught 
the  Japanese  to  see  beauty  in  nature.  Its  enchant- 
ment seems  to  have  been  a  passion  with  them  for 
ages.  Carlyle  says  that  descriptions  of  scenery  were 
not  common  in  European  literature  until  after  Goethe 
gave  to  the  world  the  "Sorrows  of  Werther."  But 
here  are  the  eight  beauties  of  Lake  Biwa  as  described 
by  the  Japanese  in  their  own  books  when  as  yet  they 
were  a  hermit  nation  :  — 


^ 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.     213 

"  The  Autumn  moon  from  Ishiyama ; 
The  Evening  Snow  on  Hoia  Yama ; 
The  Blaze  of  Evening  at  Seta ; 
The  Evening  Bell  of  Mii  dera ; 
The  Boats  sailing  back  from  Yabase ; 
A  Bright  Sky,  with  a  Breeze,  at  Awadzu ; 
Eain  by  Night  at  Karasaki ; 
The  Wild  Geese  alighting  at  Katada." 
Ernest  M.  Satow,  "  Central  and  Northern  Japan,"  p.  89. 

You  give  twelve  lectures  in  Japan  ;  six  in  English, 
and  six  through  an  interpreter.  As  you  study  your 
crowded  native  audiences  in  Yokohama,  Tokio,  Na- 
goya,  Kobe,  Osaka,  Kioto,  and  Nagasaki,  you  grad- 
ually form  definite  conceptions  of  the  peculiarities  of 
the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  temperament  of  the 
Japanese.  Undoubtedly,  they  have  the  temptations 
to  falsehood  and  sensuality  which  are  peculiar  to  the 
most  sensitive  races.  Aspiration,  honor,  industry, 
patience,  and  cheerfulness,  however,  are  natural  to 
the  Japanese  character,  and  need  only  to  be  crowned 
by  thorough  training  in  Christian  conscientiousness 
to  transform  the  native  sensitiveness  of  organization 
into  a  blessing  and  make  it  consistent  with  the  judi- 
cial type  of  mind.  The  Japanese  have  been  called 
the  French  of  the  East.  They  seem  to  me  to  be 
more  sober  than  the  Gauls  were,  as  Julius  Csesar 
found  the  latter,  and  more  gifted  in  art,  more  aspir- 
ing, while  not  less  generous,  courteous,  and  brave. 
The  Japanese  are  occasionally  criticised  for  being 
physically  small.  I  call  them  the  diamond  edition  of 
humanity ;  but  they  are  marvelously  well-formed,  fine- 
grained, and  compact  in  organization.  A  great  phy- 
sician told  me  that  he  measured  the  height  of  an 


214  ORIENT. 

hundred  as  they  came  into  his  dispensary,  and  that 
the  average  was  five  feet  two  inches,  which,  I  be- 
lieve, exceeds  the  height  of  Isaac  Watts  or  Napoleon 
Bonaparte. 

The  Japanese  are  exceedingly  fine  steel.  The  edge 
of  the  battle-axe  in  the  Japanese  soul,  I  think,  is 
sharper  by  nature  than  in  the  Briton,  or  in  the  Ger- 
man, or  in  the  American.  There  is  not  as  much 
weight  in  the  axe.  There  is  not  so  much  length  of 
helve.  This  is  the  power  of  the  German,  the  Briton, 
and  the  American,  that,  even  with  a  dull  edge,  there 
are  such  size  and  weight  in  the  axe  and  such  length 
in  the  helve  that  the  edge  cuts  its  way  through  this 
rough  world.  The  Japanese  is  the  more  delicate 
structure ;  sharper,  but,  perhaps,  without  as  much 
weight  in  the  metal.  Nevertheless,  there  is  still 
great  weight  behind  the  helve,  as  in  the  Saxon  or  in 
the  Frenchman,  great  smoothness  in  the  helve  and 
toughness.  In  ordinary  aifairs  the  Japanese  will  do 
better  without  education  than  the  Briton  or  the 
American.  They  are  a  people  of  an  ancient  civiliza- 
tion ;  they  show  the  marks  of  it  in  their  faces.  The 
quality  of  steel  is  so  good  that  a  little  education  shar- 
pens them  immensely.  They  improve  faster  under  a 
given  amount  of  training  than  the  German  peasantry, 
or  the  British,  or  the  average  American.  This  is  say- 
ing very  much  ;  but  I  respect  immensely  the  fibre 
of  the  Japanese  steel,  the  form  of  the  axe,  and  its 
achievement  in  cutting  down  the  mighty  tree  of 
feudalism,  and  in  beginning  to  cut  down  the  still 
mightier  tree  of  paganism  in  the  Japanese  Empire. 

What  were  the  principal  causes  of  the  reform  of 
Japan  ? 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      215 

1.  The  rivalry  of  the  eraperor  and  his  chief  general, 
the  former  called  the  Mikado  and  living  at  Kioto, 
and  the  latter  the  Shogun  and  living  in  the  city  now 
called  Tokio  and  exercising  really  imperial  power. 

2.  The  opposition  of  Japanese  scholars,  and  espe- 
cially those  of  the  school  of  the  Prince  of  Mi  to,  to 
this  dual  government  and  to  the  usurpations  of  the 
Shogun.  This  prince  was  born  in  1622  and  died  in 
1700,  and  is  regarded  as  the  real  author  of  the  move- 
ment which  culminated  in  the  revolution  of  1868. 

3.  The  fall  of  Pekin,  the  accession  of  the  Tartars, 
and  the  overthrow  of  the  Ming  dynasty  in  China, 
and  the  dispersion  of  many  refugee  Chinese  scholars 
throughout  Japan. 

4.  The  oppressiveness  and  corruptions  of  the  feudal 
system,  of  which  the  Shogun  was  the  head. 

5.  The  influence  of  Western  secular  civilization  on 
Japan  after  her  gates  were  opened  by  the  American 
Commodore  Perry,  in  1853,  and  by  subsequent  Brit- 
ish and  other  European  intercourse. 

Perry  arrived  opposite  Yokohama  July  7,  1853, 
and  made  a  treaty  there  March  8,  1854.  Webster 
and  Everett  did  more  than  any  other  American 
statesmen  for  the  opening  of  Japan.  It  ought  to  be 
of  interest  to  citizens  of  New  England  that  the  very 
first  official  document  ever  written  by  an  American 
concerning  the  opening  of  Japan  was  penned  by 
Daniel  Webster,  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State 
under  Mr.  Fillmore.  Our  own  Edward  Everett  fol- 
lowed up  the  enterprise  most  vigorously.  To-day,  in 
the  Bay  of  Yeddo,  you  have  two  islands  named  for 
these  two  Americans.     No  thoughtful  citizen  of  our 


216  ORIENT. 

republic  can  pass  these  spots  without  thanking  God 
that  the  genius  of  these  statesmen  unlocked  one  of 
the  rustiest  gates  of  the  Far  East. 

6.  The  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Japan  at 
various  periods  from  the  time  of  Xavier  until  that  of 
the  self-supporting  Japanese  churches  of  the  present 
day. 

7.  The  native  aspiration  of  the  Japanese. 

In  this  list  of  causes  which  have  led  to  the  reform 
of  Japan,  you  will  notice  that  I  have  not  put  into  the 
foreground  foreign  influence.  Japan  was  reformed 
from  within.  (See  Griffis,  "  The  Mikado's  Empire," 
especially  chap,  xxviii.)  Foreign  influence  was  more 
the  occasion  than  the  cause  of  her  entrance  upon  a 
new  political,  educational,  and  religious  career.  It 
ought  to  be  remembered  constantly  that  the  dual  gov- 
ernment of  Japan,  under  what  were  called  the  spirit- 
ual and  the  temporal  emperors,  never  had  the  cordial 
support  of  the  best  scholars  of  the  empire.  The  Prince 
of  Mito  secured  the  publication  of  a  history  of  Japan 
in  more  than  two  hundred  volumes,  but  containing  not 
much  more  matter  than  Bancroft's  "  History  of  the 
United  States."  It  became  a  classic  and  educated 
the  best  circles  of  the  Japanese  into  opposition  to  the 
usurping  Shogun  at  Tokio.  Little  by  little  patriotic 
public  sentiment  was  aroused.  *  As  the  Shogun  was 
the  head  of  the  feudal  system,  I  suppose  his  power 
would  liave  been  overthrown  with  violence,  even  if 
foreigners  had  not  opened  the  ports  of  Japan.  It  is 
sometimes  said  by  British  writers  that  the  bombard- 
ment of  one  or  two  Japanese  towns  introduced  the 
empire  to  a  new  career,  and  that  cannon-balls  and 


JAPAN,    THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      217 

powder  and  British  bravery  are  to  be  credited  with 
all  the  impulses  that  set  in  motion  the  recent  great 
reforms.  The  truth  is  that  without  any  bombardment 
of  Kagoshima,  or  Shimonoseki,  or  any  other  place  that 
has  been  approached  by  Britons  or  Americans  in  our 
capacity  of  pirates,  the  Japanese  feudal  system  would 
have  been  overthrown.  The  head  of  it  certainly 
would  have  been  cut  off,  for  before  Perry  landed 
public  sentiment  was  ripening  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  Shogun.  The  head  of  the  feudal  system  once  re- 
moved, it  was  easy  to  bury  the  body.  It  is  true  that 
feudalism  was  put  down  after  the  country  was  opened 
to  foreigners;  but  the  best  judges,  both  foreign  and 
native,  are  of  opinion  that  it  would  have  been  put 
down  without  any  incitement  from  abroad. 

There  is  a  very  suggestive  parallel  between  the 
dispersion  of  the  Greek  scholars  through  Europe 
after  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  and  the  dispersion 
of  the  Chinese  scholars  through  Japan  after  the  fall 
of  Pekin.  The  downfall  of  the  great  city  of  the 
Bosphorus  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  period  of  cul- 
ture for  all  Western  Europe,  and  so  the  downfall  of 
Pekin  was  the  beginning  of  entirely  new  impulses  in 
Japan. 

Notice  that  feudalism  in  Japan  was  very  oppres- 
sive, very  corrupt.  Great  nobles  spent  their  days  in 
debauchery.  They  had,  indeed,  some  military  abil- 
ity ;  they  were  proud  of  their  reputation  with  their 
fellows,  and  were  accustomed  to  commit  suicide  at  the 
shghtest  infraction  of  their  personal  honor.  Harikari, 
in  Japan,  was  abolished  only  of  late  ;  but  these  men, 
in  spite  of  their  bravery  and  their  honor,  were  often 


218  ORIENT. 

exceedingly  tyrannical  and  utterly  debauched,  and 
lived  on  taxes  wrung  from  a  comparatively  virtuous 
peasantry. 

The  chief  influence,  after  all,  in  the  reform  of 
Japan  came  from  the  native  excellence  of  the  Japan- 
ese character.  If  the  head  of  the  Chinaman  is  turned 
toward  the  past,  that  of  the  Japanese  is  turned  toward 
the  future.  The  most  beautiful  trait  of  the  Japanese 
is  aspiration  or  willingness  to  adopt  improvements, 
and  to  better  them  on  every  opportunity. 

What  is  the  extent  of  the  reformation  in  Japan  ? 

1.  It  is  represented  in  outline  by  the  celebrated 
charter  oath  of  the  emperor  taken  in  1868,  and  faith- 
fully kept  to  this  hour. 

"A  deliberative  assembly  shall  be  formed.  All 
measures  shall  be  decided  by  public  opinion.  The 
uncivilized  customs  of  former  times  shall  be  broken 
through.  The  impartiality  and  justice  displayed  in 
the  workings  of  nature  shall  be  adopted  as  a  basis  of 
action.  Intellect  and  learning  shall  be  sought  for 
throughout  the  world,  in  order  to  establish  the  foun- 
dations of  the  empire." 

Think  of  such  a  proclamation  as  that  issued  by  an 
Asiatic  prince  whose  family  antedates  the  Roman 
Empire !  The  Mikado  claims  to  be  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty-third  of  his  race  in  succession  from  an 
emperor  whose  date  is  about  660  B.  c.  It  is  affirmed 
that  the  dynasty  of  Japan  is  the  oldest  known  to  his- 
tory. This  document  is  the  real  basis  of  the  new 
government.  The  Emperor  promises  the  organiza- 
tion in  1890  of  a  national  parliament,  based  on  rep- 
resentative institutions.    When  the  Emperor  took  the 


JAPAN,    THE    SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      219 

oath,  he  was  only  sixteen  years  of  age.  Its  words 
were  put  into  his  mouth  by  the  real  leaders  of  the 
revolution  —  Okubo,  Kido,  Iwakura,  San  jo,  and  other 
rising  officials,  many  of  whom  had  received  important 
impulses  toward  reform  by  what  they  learned  of  the 
Occident  in  studying  in  missionary  schools.  These 
men  were  almost  all  business  managers,  factors,  and 
retainers  of  the  territorial  nobles. 

2.  A  large  measure  of  freedom  of  the  press  is  guar- 
anteed, and  newspapers  are  numerous  and  influential. 

3.  The  feudal  system  is  overthrown.  An  heredi- 
tary nobility,  with  at  least  600,000  retainers,  is  dis- 
armed. The  rule  of  the  Shogun  is  ended.  The 
Mikado  has  supreme  power. 

4.  The  army,  navy,  and  post-office  system  have 
been  reorganized  on  the  best  western  models. 

5.  A  university  has  been  opened  at  Tokio,  common- 
school  education  made  compulsory,  and  seventy  per 
cent,  of  the  children  of  school  age  brought  under  in- 
struction. Schools  for  female  education  are  efficiently 
patronized  by  the  Empress  and  the  nobility. 

6.  Practical  ownership  of  the  land  has  been  taken 
from  a  few  privileged  classes,  and  given  into  the 
hands  of  the  people.  The  Emperor  retains  a  title  in 
the  soil ;  but  the  peasants  can  buy  and  sell  leases  of 
it  for  long  periods. 

7.  Most  of  the  restrictions  as  to  the  admission  of 
foreigners  to  the  empire  have  been  abolished. 

8.  The  preaching  of  Christianity  and  the  growth 
of  self-supporting  Christian  churches  and  schools  are 
generally  tolerated. 

9.  The  sending  of  embassies  to  the  Western  na- 


220  ORIENT. 

tions,  beginning  with  the  visit  of  Iwakura  Tomomi 
and  his  associate  ministers  to  the  United  States,  in 
1872,  and  so  making  the  circuit  of  the  world,  has  in- 
spired Japanese  statesmen  with  Western  ideals,  and 
brought  the  empire  into  friendly  relations  with  Occi- 
dental powers. 

10.  Native  authors,  teachers,  politicians,  and  re- 
formers, exhibit  prodigious  activity  in  executing  the 
common  purpose  of  regenerating  Japan,  by  the  adop- 
tion of  the  best  portions  of  the  civilization  of  Europe 
and  America. 

There  is  no  quarter  of  Japan  so  obscure  or  distant 
as  to  have  failed  to  hear  not  merely  the  rumble,  but 
the  thunder  of  the  wheels  of  progress.  The  empire 
of  Japan  has  risen  from  the  low  plane  of  feudalism  to 
its  present  height  of  civilization  almost  as  rapidly  as 
its  sacred  mountain  Fuji-san  is  said  to  have  risen 
from  the  level  of  the  sea  —  in  a  single  night. 

These  political  changes  are  the  background  of  the 
picture  of  the  advance  that  Christianity  is  making  in 
.Japan.  Only  a  very  few  years  ago  the  inland  towns 
of  the  empire  could  not  be  approached  by  preachers 
of  Christianity,  except  in  a  private  way.  The  best 
educated  classes  of  the  people  are  now  more  eager  to 
hear  the  relations  of  Christianity  to  the  future  of 
their  civilization  discussed  than  to  listen  to  political 
harangues,  and  they  are  living  in  a  conflagration  of 
enthusiasm  concerning  political  reform.  I  have  given 
question-box  lectures  in  Japan,  and  have  been  much 
struck  by  the  juxtaposition  of  political  and  religious 
inquiries  on  the  same  sheet  of  paper.  For  instance, 
these  four,  which  I  remember,  were  given  to  me  at 


JAPAN,    THE    SELF-KEFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.     221 

Kioto  by  a  young  professor :  "  Ought  there  to  be  a 
property  qualification  for  the  franchise  ?  What  is 
the  true  definition  of  inspiration  ?  Should  there  be 
an  upper  house  in  our  legislative  assemblies  ?  How 
do  you  reconcile  fate  and  free  will?" 

It  is  a  significant  sign  of  the  times  in  Japan  that 
large  assemblies  will  listen  patiently  and  applaud- 
ingly to  denunciations  of  Reformed  Buddhism.  On 
one  occasion,  in  the  city  of  Kioto,  before  an  audience 
crowding  the  largest  available  hall,  I  was  requested 
to  occupy  two  hours  in  discussing  the  relations  of 
Christianity  to  the  future  of  the  Japanese  Empire. 
The  request  came  from  certain  members  of  the  leg- 
islative assembly  of  the  city.  It  was  understood  that 
the  interpreter,  the  eloquent  youn^  professor,  Ichihara, 
would  occupy  as  much  time  as  the  speaker.  The  re- 
sult was  that  we  occupied  together  three  hours  and 
forty-five  minutes,  and  discussed  with  entire  frank- 
ness not  merely  the  inherited  misbeliefs  of  the  Japa- 
nese, but  especially  their  imported  unbelief.  The  lat- 
ter, for  the  educated  classes  in  Japan,  is  a  greater 
danger  at  present,  probably,  than  the  former.  Never- 
theless, the  severest  things  I  could  say  against  Re- 
formed Buddhism  and  Shintoism  and  European  and 
American  infidelity  were  received  patiently  and  ap- 
plausively  by  an  audience  quite  as  willing  to  express 
dissent  as  assent.  For  saying  the  same  things  in 
that  city  ten  years  previously,  we  should  probably 
have  lost  our  lives. 

Buddhism  in  Japan  is  making  a  vigorous  effort  to 
reinstate  itself  in  the  affections  of  the  people.  Many 
new  temples  are  in  course  of  erection  by  the  Reformed 


222  ORIENT. 

Buddhists.  Old  temples  are  often  repaired,  at  great 
expense.  The  men  who  understand  Japan  best,  how- 
ever, think  that  this  is  only  a  spasm  of  a  dying  crea- 
ture. 

The  Reformed  Buddhistic  doctrine  differs  greatly 
from  the  Buddhism  taught  in  the  Himalaya  Moun- 
tains and  in  Western  China.  I  had  an  instructive 
conversation  with  the  foremost  Buddhist  priest  of 
Kioto,  and  was  at  the  time  in  company  with  one  of 
the  most  learned  of  the  missionaries  of  that  city,  and 
we  found  that  by  Nirvana  this  priest  does  not  mean 
at  all  the  cessation  of  personal  existence,  and,  of 
course,  not  of  consciousness.  To  the  Reformed  Bud- 
dhists of  Japan,  Nirvana  means  the  Western  Heaven, 
and  it  differs  not  much  from  the  average  idea  of  par- 
adise. The  question  as  to  the  meaning  of  Nirvana  is 
a  difficult  one,  because  the  answer  to  it  depends  upon 
geography  and  dates.  At  certain  periods  of  its  ex- 
istence Buddhism  has  been  understood  to  mean  by 
Nirvana  absolute  extinction  of  individuality  and  con- 
,sciousness.  But  with  the  masses  of  the  Reformed 
Buddhists  of  Japan,  the  anticipation  in  regard  to  the 
future  is  not  annihilation,  but  sometimes  very  like 
the  outlook  of  the  uninstructed  Roman  Catholic  peas- 
ant. Max  Miiller,  when  appealed  to  by  two  of  the 
missionaries  of  the  Reformed  Buddhism  of  Japan  to 
say  whether  their  doctrines  agreed  with  those  of 
Gautama,  the  Buddha,  replied,  frankly  :  "  No.  You 
Reformed  Buddhists  have  added  a  large  number  of 
doctrines  to  pure  Buddhism.  Some  of  the  additions 
are  most  mischievous,  and  some  of  them  are  approxi- 
mations to  Christianity.    You  have  no  thorough-going 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.     223 

right  to  call  yourselves  orthodox  followers  of  the 
founder  of  Buddhism.  Your  doctrines  are  not  to  be 
discovered  in  the  earliest  Buddhistic  literature."  I 
quoted  this  statement  of  Max  Miiller  to  this  distin- 
guished Buddhistic  priest,  and  asked  him  what  reply- 
he  had  to  make.  His  only  answer  was,  that  in  the 
forests  of  the  Himalayas  and  in  the  sacred  temples 
of  Thibet  there  are  many  Buddhistic  sacred  books  of 
which  Max  Miiller  and  the  scholars  of  the  Occident 
know  nothing  at  all. 

American  missionaries,  especially  the  learned  and 
eloquent  Dr.  Verheck,  who  may  almost  be  called  the 
founder  of  the  University  of  Tokio,  have  had  an  im- 
portant influence  in  educating  several  young  men  in 
Japan,  who  have  become  prominent  as  leaders  of  the 
reformed  party  in  the  government.  It  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  Commodore  Perry  opened  the  doors 
of  Japan  when  she  was  a  hermit.  America  has  prob- 
ably as  much  moral  influence  on  Japan  at  this  mo- 
ment as  any  other  Western  nation,  and  this  because 
we  were  the  first  people  to  establish  important  rela- 
tions with  her,  as  soon  as  the  opening  of  her  ports 
commenced ;  and  because  American  missionaries  are 
more  numerous  in  proportion  to  the  population  than 
those  of  any  other  nation ;  but  especially  because 
America  is  not  suspected  of  having  any  political  mo- 
tives for  her  operations  in  the  Far  East.  Although 
Great  Britain  controls  India,  on  one  side  of  Japan, 
and  Australasia,  on  the  other,  it  is,  in  my  judgment, 
probable  that  America  exercises  a  larger  moral  in- 
fluence in  the  Japanese  Empire  at  this  moment  than 
Great  Britain. 


224  ORIENT. 

The  use  of  the  Roman  alphabet  in  printing  Japa- 
nese words  is  a  reform  which  seems  now  certain  of 
success  in  Japan,  and  will  enable  the  student  to  learn 
as  much  in  two  years  as  he  formerly  did  in  ten. 

No  other  set  of  missionaries  has  carried  its  system 
of  self-support  in  native  churches  as  far  as  those  of 
the  American  Board.  I  am  not  inclined  to  criticise 
the  policy  of  the  Board  in  requiring  native  churches 
to  support  themselves  as  far  as  possible  ;  this  sys- 
tem has  the  hearty  respect  of  the  Japanese  ;  but  I 
think  the  system  has  been  pushed  by  this  Board  in 
the  Far  East  quite  as  far  as  the  present  condition  of 
the  native  churches  will  warrant.  There  is  a  native 
church  in  Osaka  which  lately  sent  back  funds  to  the 
American  Board,  stating  that  it  was  quite  equal  to 
the  test  of  self-support.  There  are  a  dozen  other  na- 
tive churches  that  are  wholly  self-supporting.  The 
ideal  of  the  young  Japanese  Christians  under  the 
leadership  of  the  American  Board  is  that  they  must 
soon  support  themselves  and  be  entirely  free  from 
dependence  upon  this  country,  not  merely  for  money, 
but  for  teachers,  both  religious  and  secular.  The 
Japanese  are  a  spirited  people,  very  quick  to  perceive 
the  obligations  of  honor,  and  a  Japanese  Christian  is 
yet  a  Japanese  in  these  particulars. 

The  career  of  Mr.  Neesima,  of  Kioto,  has  been 
quite  as  remarkable  in  Japan  as  it  was  in  this  country. 
His  history  is  a  romance.  In  studying  geography,  in 
his  early  youth,  he  learned  that  the  Western  nations 
had  been  made  great  by  their  use  of  the  Bible.  He 
was  moved  to  make  inquiries  as  to  this  book;  but 
found  no  satisfaction  for  his  curiosity,  and  finally  he 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      225 

ran  away  from  his  father's  house,  drifted  to  Shang- 
hai, and  there  obtained  passage  in  a  ship  which  took 
him  eventually  to  America.  The  vessel  was  one  of 
Hon.  Alpheus  Hardy's,  and,  when  the  captain  reached 
Boston,  he  took  Mr.  Neesima  to  this  distinguished 
merchant,  and  said :  "  Here  is  a  young  man  who 
wishes  to  know  something  of  Christianity.  I  thought 
you  might  be  able  to  tell  him  something  important 
on  that  matter."  The  boy  was  fortunate  in  falling 
into  a  circle  in  which  Christianity  is  not  merely  a 
creed,  but  a  life.  His  benefactor  sent  him  to  Phil- 
lips Academy,  at  Andover,  afterward  to  Amherst 
College,  and  then  to  the  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary. President  Seelye,  when  asked  by  the  Ameri- 
can Board  to  describe  Mr.  Neesima's  career  in  col- 
lege, answered  :  '•'  You  ask  me  to  gild  gold,"  Mr. 
Neesima  went  home  to  Japan  possessed  of  the  zeal  of 
an  apostle.  He  is  now  at  the  head  of  an  educational 
institution  at  Kioto  which  is  likely  to  grow  into  a 
university.  At  present  its  chief  business  is  to  teach 
young  men  Christianity  and  the  outlines  of  the  Occi- 
dental sciences ;  but  it  is  Mr.  Neesima's  earnest  de- 
sire to  add  to  the  school  a  fully  equipped  theological, 
medical,  and  legal  department.  His  whole  soul  is  in 
the  work  of  regenerating  the  educational  life  of  Japan, 
and  at  the  same  time  promoting  the  growth  there  of 
the  most  vital  forms  of  Christianity.  The  work  of 
Mr.  Neesima  in  Japan  is  perhaps  exactly  paralleled 
by  that  of  no  other  young  man  there ;  and,  neverthe- 
less, there  are  several  Japanese  teachers  who  have  re- 
ceived a  thorough  education  in  this  country  and  are 
exerting  an  influence  greatly  similar  to  his.     The 

15 


226  ORIENT. 

pastor  of  the  self-supporting  church  at  Osaka,  Mr. 
Samayama,  was  educated  at  Evanston,  Illinois,  and 
is  revered  by  his  congregation  and  wide  circles  of  ac- 
quaintances as  one  of  the  fathers  of  the  modern  Japa- 
nese Church. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  some  young  Japanese, 
who  in  this  countr}^  have  united  with  our  churches, 
have  not  led  consistent  Christian  lives  after  they  re- 
turned ;  but  I  heard  of  no  case  of  a  Japanese  that  has 
received  in  this  country  a  thorough  theological  educa- 
tion who  has  failed  to  stand  up  unflinchingly  for  his 
faith  in  his  native  land.  It  is  an  interesting  point 
to  notice  that  Japanese  students  sent  to  Europe  very 
rarely  return  Christians,  while  a  large  number  who 
are  sent  to  America  return  convinced  that  Christian- 
ity should  be  the  religion  of  the  Far  East.  This 
difference  is  probably  owing  to  the  readiness  with 
which  Japanese  students  here  are  received  into  the 
better  circles  of  society,  and  the  great  difficulty  and 
frequent  impossibility  of  obtaining  any  entrance  to 
what  calls  itself  society  in  Europe. 

It  is  most  cheerful  news  that  the  Empress  of  Japan, 
who  is  childless,  has  made  herself  the  patroness  of 
female  education.  The  Methodist  bodies  among  the 
missionaries  of  Japan  deserve  high  honor  for  their 
zeal  in  advancing  this  great  cause.  The  city  of  Na- 
gasaki, one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Japan,  exhibits 
to  the  traveler  who  approaches  it  no  building  of  equal 
prominence  or  dignity  with  the  Female  Seminary 
wliich  has  just  been  founded  by  the  Methodist  mis- 
sion. One  of  the  finest  mission  buildings  in  the  Far 
East  is  occupied  by  the  female  school  of  the  Metho- 
dists in  Tokio.    Other  denominations  are  doing  much 


JAPAN,   THE   SELF-REFORMED   HERMIT   NATION.      227 

in  the  same  direction  ;  but  probably  the  Methodists 
lead  in  this  reform,  which  has  incalculably  important 
relations  to  the  whole  topic  of  the  regeneration  of 
Asia.  There  are  admirable  female  schools  conducted 
under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Board.  Dr. 
Hepburn,  of  the  Presbyterian  Board,  is  well  known 
as  the  great  scholar  of  the  Japanese  missions.  He  is 
the  author  of  the  standard  Japanese-English  diction- 
ary, and  is  often  appealed  to  most  confidently  by 
the  embassies  of  various  nationalities  to  decide  ques- 
tions of  interpretation  arising  between  foreign  gov- 
ernments and  the  Japanese  Empire.  All  the  Protes- 
tant missionary  bodies  in  Japan  are  doing  superb  ser- 
vice, and  are  really  united  in  spirit.  I  was  greatly 
impressed  by  the  union  of  sentiment  among  mission- 
aries, not  only  in  Japan  but  in  China  and  in  India. 
Soldiers  who  are  face  to  face  with  the  enemy  must 
close  up  their  ranks.  The  conflict  with  paganism 
brings  out  in  the  vanguard  of  the  churches  the  hid- 
den half  of  Christian  unity. 

Let  me  now  answer  the  question :  What  dangers 
are  yet  before  Japan  as  a  reformed  country  ? 

1.  The  too  speedy  introduction  of  representative 
institutions. 

2.  The  growth  of  party  spirit  under  political  ri- 
valry, and  enlarged  freedom  of  public  discussion. 

8.  Imported  heresies  in  political  economy,  such  as 
socialism  and  nihilism. 

4.  A  large  public  debt,  burdensome  taxation,  and 
threats  of  bankruptcy. 

5.  The  death-struggle  of  reformed  Buddhism,  Shin- 
toism,  and  other  native  hereditary  misbeliefs. 

6.  Imported  unbelief. 


228  ORIENT. 

Japan  needs  to  know  the  difference  between  the 
cream  of  the  Occident  and  its  driftwood  and  scum. 
Several  teachers  from  the  West  have  assui'ed  Japan 
that  Christianity  is  waning  in  power  in  the  Occident. 
Nihilism,  socialism,  agnosticism,  positive  atheism  float 
into  Japan  on  the  waves  of  our  literature.  Japan 
will  soon  be  too  well  educated  to  be  misled  as  to  the 
real  sources  of  the  greatness  of  England,  Germany, 
and  America.  I  hold  in  my  hand  at  this  moment 
the  catalogue  of  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  chief  Jap- 
anese book-shop  in  Tokio,  and  I  ask  any  one  who 
doubts  my  assertion  to  look  into  it  for  proof  that 
there  is  in  that  one  establishment  as  good  a  collec- 
tion of  English  books  as  you  will  find  in  almost 
any  book-shop  in  the  Occident.  I  hold  in  my  hand 
the  examination  papers  of  the  Japanese  University. 
They  are  as  searching  as  those  of  Harvard  or  Yale, 
or  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  the  classics  only  excepted. 

After  lyeyasu,  one  of  the  greatest  of  Japanese  he- 
roes, had  won  the  battle  of  Sekigahara,  he  sat  down 
and  tied  on  his  helmet,  and  said :  "  After  victory 
tighten  the  cords  of  your  armor."  His  wisdom  is 
peculiarly  necessary  to  Japan  at  the  present  hour 
of  her  great  transitional  period.  Let  her  study  the 
West  until  she  learns  that  it  is  Christianity  that  has 
made  the  foremost  of  Occidental  nations  free,  intel- 
ligent, powerful,  and  progressive.  Only  a  scholarly 
and  aggressive  Christianity  can  guarantee  the  pros- 
perity of  the  Japanese  future.  Her  inherited  misbe- 
liefs, which  cannot  endure  the  light  of  real  research, 
Japan  is  vigorously  casting  off.  God  grant  that  the 
Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  may  speedily  cease  to  be  the 
land  of  bats ! 


VI. 


AUSTRALIA,   THE    PACIFIC    OCEAN,  AND 
INTERNATIONAL  REFORM. 

WITH   A   PRELUDE   ON 

INTERNATIONAL  DUTIES  OF  CHRISTENDOM. 

THE   ONE  HUNDRED   AND   SIXTY-SECOND    LECTURE   IN   THE 

BOSTON    MONDAY    LECTURESHIP,     DELIVERED    IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,    MARCH  26,   1883. 


"  Throb  on,  strong  pulse  of  thunder !  beat 
From  answering  beach  to  beach : 
Fuse  nations  in  thy  kindly  heat 
And  melt  the  chains  of  each. 

♦*  For  lo  !  the  fall  of  Ocean's  Wall, 
Space  mocked  and  time  outrun  ; 
And  round  the  world  the  thought  of  all 
Is  as  the  thought  of  one." 

Whittier  :  Cable  Hymn. 

"  Our  helm  is  given  up  to  a  better  guidance  than  our  own ;  the 
course  of  events  is  quite  too  strong  for  any  helmsman,  and  our  little 
■wherry  is  taken  in  tow  by  the  ship  of  the  Great  Admiral  which  knows 
the  way  and  has  the  force  to  draw  men  and  states  and  planets  to  their 
good."  —  Emerson  :  The  Fortune  of  the  Republic. 


"  There  is  no  topic  so  pregnant  as  this  of  the  mutual  influence  of  the 
branches  of  the  English  race.  The  whole  future  of  the  planet  de- 
pends upon  it." — Professor  Seelet:  Expansion  of  England. 

I  **  The  evening-colored  apple-trees 

Are  faint  with  July's  frosty  breath ; 
And  at  the  turning  of  the  year. 

When  August  wanders  in  the  cold, 
The  raiment  of  the  nursling  here 

Is  rich  with  green  and  glad  with  gold." 

Kendall  :  Moss  on  a  Wall. 


PRELUDE  VL 

INTEHNATIONAL  DUTIES   OF  CHBISTENDOM. 

As,  in  the  individual,  an  inner  regeneration  must 
precede  any  thorough  outward  reformation,  so,  in 
the  whole  world,  which  is  made  up  of  individuals,  we 
must  look  to  religion  as  the  basis  of  secular  reform. 
Nothing  less  stern  than  this  is  fit  to  be  preached  in 
the  name  of  science  or  revelation.      [Applause.] 

1.  The  growth  of  Christianity  is  already  so  great 
that  it  is  responsible  for  the  maintenance  not  only  of 
national,  but  also  of  international,  morality. 

2.  But  international  morality  cannot  be  maintamed 
without  leading  to  the  reformation  of  international 

law.  . 

Such  has  been  the  marvelous  growth  of  the  Chris- 
tian nations  in  our  century  that  in  the  last  eighty- 
three  years  Christianity  has  gained  more  adherents 
than  in  the  previous  eighteen  centuries.  In  the  first 
1,500  years  of  the  history  of  Christianity  it  gained 
100,000,000  adherents;  in  the  next  300  years,  100,- 
000,000  more;  but  in  the  last  100  years  it  has 
gained  210,000,000  more.  These  are  facts  of  colossal 
significance,  and  they  cannot  be  dwelt  on  too  graph- 
ically or  too  often.  By  adherents  of  Christianity  I 
mean  nominal  Christians  —  that  is,  all  who  are  not 
Pagans,  Mohammedans,  or  Jews.      At  the  present 


232  ORIENT. 

rate  of  progress,  it  is  supposed  that  there  will  be 
1,200,000,000  of  nominal  Christians  in  the  world  in 
the  year  2,000.  (Dr.  Daniel  Dorchester,  "The  Prob- 
lem of  Religious  Progress.") 

Not  reformation  only,  but  regeneration,  is  the  de- 
mand of  Christianity,  of  every  individual,  every  peo- 
ple, and  the  whole  unified  family  of  the  world's  na- 
tions. As  with  the  poet  or  the  orator,  it  is  not  the 
inspired  word  that  gives  the  inspired  mood,  but  the 
inspired  mood  which  gives  the  inspired  word ;  so  it  is 
regeneration  of  the  world  that  is  to  bring  about  its 
reformation,  and  not  its  reformation  its  regeneration. 
It  is  religion  that  is  to  be  the  basis  of  all  really  hope- 
ful and  permanent  secular  reform,  and  not  secular  re- 
form that  is  to  bring  in  by  and  by  a  perfect  religion. 
My  conviction  is  profound  that  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  must  go  before  any  pervasive  self-supporting 
success  of  great  philanthropies,  even  in  pagan  nations, 
and  that  we  must  look  for  the  world's  regeneration 
in  a  large  part  before  we  can  expect  its  reformation 
throughout  any  very  wide  and  untroubled  portion  of 
its  now  vexed,  fickle,  and  degraded  populations.  The 
perfection  of  civilization  will  not  be  reached  until  the 
world,  as  a  whole,  learns  the  strange  new  wisdom 
which  is  not  the  cause,  but  the  result,  of  total  and  af- 
fectionate self-surrender  to  God. 

When  once  a  royal  procession  was  passing  a  bridge 
across  the  Spree,  in  the  city  of  Berlin,  Julius  Miiller, 
then  a  young  man,  fell  into  that  river  and  was  in 
peril  of  death.  He  yielded  to  God  utterly  as  he  sank 
in  the  waves ;  he  gave  up  his  soul  completely  to  his 
Father,  his  Saviour,  his  Lord ;  and  the  bliss  of  that 


INTERNATIONAL   DUTIES   OF   CHRISTENDOM.      233 

surrender,  the  inner  f ruitf ulness  of  it,  the  strange, 
new,  unexpected  power  and  peace  which  came  from 
it  were  his  inspiration  throughout  all  his  subsequent 
devout  and  learned  career.  He  found  that  yielding 
to  God  utterly  gives  an  inner  sense  of  God,  just  as, 
on  a  lower  plane,  the  poet  or  the  orator  finds  that 
yielding  utterly  to  the  inner  impulse  of  conscience 
gives  an  intellectual  power,  a  moral  insight,  a  capac- 
ity of  expression,  a  freshness,  an  incisiveness  of 
phrase  entirely  unobtainable  by  mere  will  or  by  any 
method  of  intellectual  prudence.  Yield  to  the  winds 
of  the  uppermost  heavens,  if  you  would  produce  any 
divine  effect  through  speech. 

Take  the  most  advanced  of  present  nations,  and 
how  near  are  they  to  having  the  inner  wisdom  of  self- 
surrender  to  God  ?  Do  they  possess  any  considerable 
amount  of  the  genius  that  comes  from  harmony  with 
the  divine  laws  of  the  human  spirit  and  of  the  de- 
velopment of  history  at  large  ?  Only  that  inner  wis- 
dom and  that  genius  can  give  us  the  utmost  human 
progress.  The  principal  periods  of  vital  reform  in 
history  have  come  from  really  slight  touches  of  this 
wisdom  in  a  few  circles  or  individuals ;  but  to  see 
whole  nations  moved  by  it  and  the  world  melodiously 
loyal  to  it  would  be  to  witness  the  fulfillment  of  a 
prayer  which  is  universal  and  yet  to  be  answered, 
that  God's  will  may  be  done  on  earth  as  in  heaven. 

3.  The  united  Christian  sentiment  of  the  globe  has 
power  to  seize  by  the  throat  and  break  the  neck  of 
any  unjust  international  movement. 

4.  As  the  slave-trade,  piracy,  and  other  interna- 
tional evils  have  been  wholly  or  nearly  abolished,  so 


234  ORIENT. 

all  the  abuses  that  remain  in  the  conduct  of  nations 
toward  each  other  must  be  reformed. 

5.  It  must  be  proclaimed  unflinchingly  that  even 
commerce  is  not  to  stand  in  the  way  of  righteous 
judgment  in  the  affairs  of  nations.     [Applause.] 

Why  did  Great  Britain  recently  make  war  with 
Egypt?  Because  of  commercial  reasons.  There  was 
likelihood  that  Egypt  would  run  away  with  the  funds 
that  were  needed  to  pay  certain  European  creditors, 
and  so  England  and  France  declared  war.  John 
Bright  resigned  his  position  in  a  proud  English  cabi- 
net simply  because  he  felt  that  commerce  in  Eng- 
land's relations  to  Egypt  had  throttled  moral  law, 
and  because  he  believed  that  the  moral  law  should 
throttle  every  unjust  thing  in  commerce.  [Ap- 
plause.] The  time  is  coming  when  not  merely  states- 
men of  the  most  eminent  rank  will  be  ready  to  speak 
sternly  to  any  unscrupulous  leaders  of  commerce ; 
the  press  also,  and  perhaps,  by  and  by,  the  parlor  and 
then  the  pulpit,  will  acquire  a  similar  courage.  Our 
brave  men  in  pulpits  have  usually  done  their  duty ; 
but  occasionally  they  need  to  be  encouraged  to  far 
franker  attacks  than  they  usually  make  upon  the 
vices  of  the  respectable  portions  of  Christendom. 
[Applause.]  It  will  not  be  greed  and  selfish  desire 
for  commercial  aggrandizement  that  will  ultimately 
control  the  international  relations  of  the  globe. 
Merchants  did  not  govern  the  American  republic 
when  once  the  evil  of  slavery  was  vividly  seen  by 
the  churches.     Money  is  mighty,  but  not  almighty. 

6.  It  is  chiefly,  to-day,  the  inertness,  the  greed, 
and  occasionally  the  moral  unscrupulousness  of  nom- 


INTERNATIONAL   DUTIES   OF   CHRISTENDOM.      285 

inal  Christians,  under  temptation  of  gain,  which  main- 
tain the  worst  international  abases  of  the  world. 

Make  the  nominal  Christians  real  ones,  and  the 
principal  evils  of  our  time  will  vanish  out  of  it,  as 
the  snow-drifts  disappear  under  the  vernal  heat.  As 
slavery  was  abolished,  so  a  multitude  of  abuses  yet 
notorious  in  the  international  relations  of  populations 
called  Christian  would  disappear  were  once  nominal 
Christians  made  aggressive  ones. 

7.  Commerce  itself,  in  spite  of  its  selfishness,  and 
even  on  account  of  it,  may  become  a  chief  support  of 
international  reform. 

8.  Communication  between  nations  is  becoming  so 
swift  and  pervasive  that  it  must  lead  to  contact  among 
nations^  and  contact  to  conference^  and  conference  to 
concert^  and  concert  to  cooperation^  and  cooperation 
to  virtual  moral  confederation. 

What  is  wanted  is  not  a  union  of  Christian  or 
even  of  Protestant  or  English-speaking  nations  ;  but 
an  alliance  consistent  at  once  with  self-government 
in  the  different  nations,  and  with  a  cosmopolitan  and 
Christian  internationalism  in  their  concerted  action. 

Not  proposing  the  formal  political  confederation  of 
Christendom,  but  its  close  moral  alliance,  part  with 
part,  throughout  the  whole  earth,  I  defend  a  number 
of  definite  measures  that  would  secure,  if  carried, 
what  scholars  have  been  asking  for  these  fifty  years, 
—  universal  peace,  justice  in  the  relations  of  strong 
nations  with  weak,  and  a  general  advance  of  Chris- 
tian principle  throughout  all  the  departments  of  in- 
ternational law. 

Let  me  name  twelve  measures  required  by  inter- 
national morality  :  — 


236  ORIENT. 

1.  Arbitration  in  place  of  war,  in  every  case  to 
which  it  can  be  applied ;  and  treaties  including  agree- 
ments to  use  arbitration  before  resorting  to  war. 

Mr.  Bright,  in  1849,  supported  Mr.  Cobden  when 
the  latter  presented  a  petition  of  200,000  names  to 
Parliament  asking  that  arbitration  be  made  a  remedy 
for  war  in  every  case  to  which  it  is  applicable.  The 
petition  was  not  granted  ;  its  supporters  were  re- 
garded as  fanatics.  Some  of  the  greatest  philanthro- 
pists of  Europe  put  themselves  on  Mr.  Cobden's  side, 
Victor  Hugo  among  them  ;  and  so,  little  by  little, 
the  ear  of  the  world  was  obtained.  In  1873  the 
House  of  Commons  passed  a  resolution  praying  the 
Queen  to  put  a  provision  making  arbitration  a  remedy 
for  war  into  every  treaty  she  should  make  with  for- 
eign nations.  The  lords  never  passed  that  measure. 
Our  own  House  of  Representatives,  in  1874,  passed  a 
similar  resolution.  This  last  winter  a  distinguished 
Massachusetts  senator,  whom  may  God  bless,  intro- 
duced that  resolution  once  more,  and  it  will  not  al- 
ways sleep,  even  in  our  upper  house.  Our  martyred 
President  Garfield  announced  that  arbitration  was 
the  settled  policy  of  his  administration.  He  wished 
to  bring  together  all  the  nations  of  this  continent, 
and  to  enter  into  a  treaty  with  them  to  make  arbitra- 
tion a  remedy  for  war  in  every  case  to  which  it  is  ap- 
plicable. Commerce  was  asleep ;  Commerce  was  count- 
ing its  dollars  in  its  tills;  Commerce  was  bending  over 
its  muck-rake  and  forgetting  the  glorious  rewards 
of  philanthrop}^  which  are  far-flashing  crowns  in  his- 
tory long  after  individual  or  even  national  wealth  is 
forgotten.     Little  Peru,  in  South  America,  called  for 


INTERNATIONAL   DUTIES   OF   CHRISTENDOM.      237 

a  convention  to  make  arbitration  the  rule  of  this 
hemisphere.  It  is  only  of  late  that  we  have  begun 
to  appreciate  our  interests  in  South  America  as  mer- 
chants. Britain  is  in  advance  of  us  commercially  in 
that  part  of  the  world  so  far  from  her,  so  near  to  us. 
It  was  for  our  interest  to  hold  this  convention ;  but 
we  were  far  too  busy  to  attend  to  the  matter,  even 
when  Garfield  proposed  it.  What  we  want  is  that 
not  merely  among  English  -  speaking  nations,  but 
throughout  the  whole  globe,  it  should  become  the 
practice  to  make  arbitration  an  international  system, 
and  thus  a  remedy  for  all  wars  to  which  arbitration 
can  be  applied.  [Applause.]  I  am  not  a  defender 
of  the  principle  of  non-resistance.  There  are  wars 
that  are  just  ;  but,  as  Mr.  Bright  is  reported  to 
have  said,  no  war  since  the  time  of  William  III. 
has  been  thoroughly  justifiable,  except  that  of  the 
Northern  States  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the 
preservation  of  our  Union.      [Applause.] 

2.  The  complete  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  on  the 
sea. 

You  say  that  we  have  abolished  it.  Not  we. 
Great  Britain  has  put  forth  herculean  efforts  to 
abolish  the  slave-trade,  and  is  yet  efigaged  in  that 
majestic  business.  Between  Africa  and  Persia  the 
slave-trade  is  vigorous  yet.  In  the  Indian  Ocean 
slave-traders  are  constantly  watched  by  British  men- 
of-war.  America  ought  to  help  in  that  chase.  [Ap- 
plause,] She  is  too  penurious  to  do  so.  Commerce 
holds  her  back.  Why  should  she  attend  to  this 
matter  ?  Here  again  we  must  take  the  Churcli  by 
the  hand  a  little  earnestlv,  and  Commerce  also,  and 


238  ORIENT. 

awaken  both  to  tlie  prompt  performance  of  tills  inter- 
national duty.  Great  Britain  is  really  carrying  out 
her  antislavery  principles  better  than  we  are.  She 
has  at  this  time  many  men  engaged  in  suppressing 
the  slave-trade.  She  has  called  on  us  for  assistance, 
and  some  other  nations  are  helping  her;  but,  in 
spite  of  our  general  agreement  in  our  present  opin- 
ions about  maritime  rights,  and  our  pride  in  having 
abolished  slavery,  we  are  yet  behind  the  British  Em- 
pire in  this  matter. 

The  time  will  come  when  Christianity  will  demand 
that  we  should  put  an  end  to  the  slave-trade  on  the 
land.  David  Livingstone  wished  to  have  this  policy 
adopted  even  in  his  time.  The  horrors  of  the  inter- 
nal slave-trade  in  Africa  are  at  this  moment  un- 
speakable. Personal  contact  with  them,  such  as  a 
Stanley  or  a  Livingstone  has  had,  shows  that  Africa, 
even  in  our  time,  is  a  shield  with  streams  of  blood 
running  down  to  its  edges.  Along  the  slave-trails 
that  lead  to  the  eastern  and  northern  ports  of  Africa, 
murders  and  other  atrocities  occur  so  frequently  that 
it  is  no  exaggeration,  but  literal  fact,  to  say  that  the 
trails  are  blood-stained.  They  are  marked  by  the 
bones  of  thousands  who  have  fallen  on  them.  The 
slaves  who  are  shipped  off  in  Moorish  and  Arabic 
vessels  from  the  coasts  of  Africa  are  far  more  numer- 
ous than  you  dream  ;  and  yet  America  sits  here  in 
her  Bostons,  her  New  Yorks,  her  Chicagos,  and  thinks 
herself  enlightened  and  advanced  and  philanthropic, 
while  Great  Britain,  mighty  as  she  is,  finds  herself 
unable  to  repress  this  trade. 

3.  The  wider  protection  of  the  rights  of  neutrals  in 
all  wars. 


INTERNATIONAL   DUTIES   OF   CHRISTENDOM.      239 

4.  Common  laws  as  to  copyrights  and  patents. 
We  steal  more  books  from  England  than  she  does 

from  us ;  but  she  steals  more  patents  from  us  than 
we  do  from  her,  and  I  would  put  the  two  abuses  to- 
gether and  reform  them. 

5.  Postal  union  facilities  of  all  kinds. 

6.  International  bills  of  exchange. 

7.  The  extension  of  international  law  to  the  Orient, 
Africa,  and  all  the  weakest  nations. 

8.  Mixed  courts,  made  up  in  part  of  judges  from 
one  nation  and  in  part  of  judges  from  another,  for 
the  trial  of  international  offenses  by  individuals. 

In  China  and  Japan  there  are  mixed  courts  now  ; 
but  they  are  full  of  abuses  which  it  is  the  office  of  in- 
ternational morality  to  reform. 

9.  An  international  police. 

10.  A  scholarly  codification  of  international  law  as 
far  as  it  now  exists  in  a  positive  form,  and  the  adop- 
tion of  a  brief  summary  code  by  the  advanced  nations. 

Of  course  no  nation  could  be  held  responsible  to 
such  a  code  until  it  should  have  adopted  it  for  itself. 
Let  the  eight  principal  powers  of  the  Occident  — 
England,  Germany,  Austria,  Russia,  Italy,  France, 
Spain,  and  the  United  States  —  adopt  such  a  code, 
and  it  would  make  its  own  way,  ultimately,  through 
the  world.  Forty-six  nations  have  agreed  to  define 
maritime  rights  in  certain  ways;  sixteen  nations  are 
united  now  in  a  postal  union. 

11.  A  high  court  of  arbitration  in  case  of  disputes 
between  two  nations. 

12.  An  annual  conference  of  nations^  with  a  view 
to  facilitate  intercourse,  prevent  abuses,  and  secure 
international  peace. 


240  ORIENT. 

When  the  Panama  Canal  is  cut,  why  should  the 
United  States  and  England  not  guarantee  its  military 
neutrality  ?  All  wars  should  be  kept  out  of  it  and 
the  Suez  Canal,  and  out  of  the  seas  near  either  end 
of  each.  The  interests  of  neutrals  in  modern  Euro- 
pean wars  have  become  so  important  that  the  great 
powers  have  often  guaranteed  the  military  neutrality 
of  Belgium,  the  Rhine,  and  Switzerland.  In  Aus- 
tralia I  heard  statesmen  saying  that  after  the  Pan- 
ama Canal  is  cut,  the  time  will  come  when  Cobden's 
doctrine  will  look  practical — that  the  great  highways 
of  commerce  on  the  chief  oceans  should  have  their 
neutrality  guaranteed  by  the  leading  powers  of  Chris- 
tendom. 

The  time  is  coming  when  to  the  English-speaking 
nations  of  the  world  and  the  self-reformed  hermit 
nations  of  Asia,  the  Pacific  Ocean  will  be  only  what 
the  Mediterranean  was  to  the  Roman  Empire. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  speaking  at  St.  Helena  of  the 
Peace  of  Amiens,  said :  "  [  had  a  project  for  general 
peace  by  drawing  all  the  powers  to  an  immense  re- 
duction of  their  standing  armies.  And  then,  perhaps, 
as  intelligence  became  universally  diffused,  one  might 
be  permitted  to  dream  of  the  application  to  the  great 
European  family  of  an  institution  like  the  American 
Congress,  or  that  of  the  Amphictyon  in  Greece,  and 
then  what  a  perspective  before  us  of  greatness,  of 
happiness,  of  prosperity  ;  what  a  grand  and  magnif- 
icent spectacle !  " 

Immanuel  Kant,  in  1795,  proposed,  in  the  interests 
of  universal  peace,  a  plan  of  international  action  con- 
sisting of  these  details  :  (1.)  No  state  to  be  merged 


INTERNATIONAL   DUTIES   OF   CHRISTENDOM.      241 

in  another  by  exchange,  or  gift,  or  force.  (2.)  Ulti- 
mate abolition  of  standing  armies.  (3.)  No  state 
debts  with  reference  to  external  politics.  (4.)  No 
state  to  interfere  by  force  in  the  affairs  of  another. 
(5.)  Every  state  to  have  a  republican  constitution, 
or  one  in  which  all  the  citizens  share  in  making  laws 
and  deciding  on  questions  of  peace  and  war.  (6.)  In- 
ternational law  to  be  based  on  a  confederation  of  free 
states.  (7.)  A  citizenship  of  the  world  limited  to 
the  notion  of  the  free  access  of  all  men  to  and  their 
residence  in  any  state  upon  the  earth's  surface. 
(8.)  An  international  conference  at  stated  inter- 
vals. (See  Kant's  works,  ed.  Leipzig,  1838,  pp. 
411-466.) 

Bentham,  in  1789,  advocated  a  similar  plan.  He 
was  willing  that  a  fixed  contingent  should  be  fur- 
nished by  the  several  states  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
forcing the  decrees  of  an  international  court ;  but  he 
thought  that  public  opinion  and  the  progress  of  a 
free  press  would  prevent  the  necessity  of  such  an 
extreme  measure. 

David  Dudley  Field,  of  New  York,  has  written 
the  most  searching  and  suggestive  volume  yet  pub- 
lished on  a  proposed  International  Code.  In  case 
of  the  disagreement  of  any  two  nations,  parties  to  an 
adopted  code,  he  would  have  them  seek  a  settlement 
through  the  advice  of  a  Joint  High  Commission,  of 
their  own  appointment.  If  its  advice  is  not  taken, 
he  would  have  a  High  Tribunal  of  Arbitration  ap- 
pointed to  give  a  final  decision.  His  suggestions  as 
to  how  this  tribunal  should  be  chosen  are  drawn  up 
with  great  sagacity,  and  yet,  no  doubt,  would  need  to 

16 


242  ORIENT. 

be  modified  by  experience.  On  the  supreme  matter 
of  infractions  of  the  rule  of  loyalty  to  the  adopted 
code,  his  proposal  is :  "If  any  party  hereto  shall  be- 
gin a  war  in  violation  of  the  provisions  of  this  code 
for  the  preservation  of  peace,  the  other  parties  bind 
themselves  to  resist  the  oJBfending  nation  by  force." 
(Field's  "  International  Code,"  second  edition,  1876, 
p.  871.) 

International  reform,  you  say,  is  a  mere  kite  flown 
in  the  winds  of  philanthropic  discussion,  and  is  useful 
only  as  a  toy.  Your  Sumner  was  accustomed  to  fly 
it,  however,  and  so  was  your  Longfellow :  — 

"  Down  the  dark  future,  through  long  generations, 
War's  echoing  sounds  groAv  fainter  and  then  cease  ; 
And,  like  a  bell  with  solemn,  sweet  vibrations, 
I  hear  once  more  the  voice  of  Christ  say : '  Peace.'  " 

Longfellow  :  The  Arsenal  at  Springfield. 

Charles  Sumner,  through  his  whole  career,  was  a 
defender  of  the  principles  on  which  scholars  are  en- 
deavoring to  build  universal  peace.  He  believed  in 
war,  indeed,  such  as  our  Northern  States  fought  to 
abolish  slavery  and  maintain  the  Union ;  but  his  aim 
was  to  spread  the  white  robe  of  peace  around  the 
whole  earth.  This  same  kite  has  been  flown  by 
John  Bright,  by  Cobden,  by  Immanuel  Kant,  by 
Bentham,  by  President  Woolsey,  by  David  Dudley 
Field.  When  the  suspension  bridge  was  built  at 
Niagara,  the  first  thing  done  was  to  send  a  boy's 
kite  over  the  chasm.  That  kite  carried  a  silken 
cord  across  the  roaring  abysses  beneath  it ;  and  that 
cord  drew  after  it  wires,  and  the  wires  cables,  and 
the  cables  a  bridge  which  now  bears  the  thunder  of 


INTERNATIONAL   DUTIES   OF  CHRISTENDOM.      243 

traffic  between  two  empires.  Just  so  this  thought  of 
a  league  of  advanced  populations ;  this  idea  that  it  is 
the  duty  of  Christendom  to  maintain  international 
morality,  and  thus  to  lay  the  basis  for  reform  of 
positive  international  law ;  this  scheme  of  an  Anglo- 
American  alliance ;  this  theory  that  it  is  possible  and 
desirable  to  bring  all  enlightened  nations  together  in 
a  cosmopolitan  moral  confederation,  may  be  a  kite 
flown  in  the  winds  of  discussion  ;  but  if  joii  fly  it 
often  enough  and  long  enough  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific,  and  both  north  and  south  of 
the  Equator,  it  may  ultimately  carry  over  the  roaring 
abysses  of  international  prejudice  a  silken  cord  of 
Christian  amity  ;  and  that  cord  may  draw  after  it 
wires  and  cables,  and  by  and  by  a  bridge,  which  will 
bear  the  weight  of  the  heaviest  international  reforms, 
and  uphold  at  last,  please  God,  the  feet  of  the  White 
Christ  Himself,  as  He  walks  into  the  dawn  of  the 
millennial  day.     [Applause.] 


LECTURE  VI. 

AUSTRALIA,    THE    PACIFIC    OCEAN,    AND    INTERNA- 
TIONAL  REFORM. 

One  morning  in  the  Chinese  Sea  you  wake  to  find 
yourself  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Yang  Tse  Kiang 
River,  which  has  but  three  superiors  in  point  of 
length  in  the  whole  world, —  the  Nile,  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  the  Amazon.  Two  hundred  miles  from 
the  coast  this  giant  stream  colors  the  ocean  yellow. 
As  you  stand  on  your  ship's  deck,  on  one  edge  of  the 
river  at  its  mouth,  and  look  with  a  glass  across  its 
flashing  amber  and  gold  in  the  sunrise,  you  cannot 
see  the  opposite  shore.  It  flows  through  the  most 
populous  river  valley  of  the  globe.  Ocean  steamers 
ascend  it  to  a  point  seven  hundred  miles  from  its 
mouth.  It  is  the  commercial  highway  of  China.  In 
the  multitudinousness  of  the  human  lives  connected 
with  its  banks,  it  far  surpasses  at  present  the  Ama- 
zon, the  Nile,  or  even  the  Mississippi.  You  land  at 
Shanghai,  and  give  a  course  of  lectures  there,  —  a 
city  in  a  level  plain,  stately  mercantile  palaces,  Brit- 
ish, French,  German,  American,  fronting  the  curve 
of  the  small  but  crowded  river  that  flows  through  it. 
The  highest  hill  in  the  city  or  vicinity  is  said  to  bo 
the  swelling  arch  of  a  certain  bridge  over  this  stream, 
so  completely  flat  is  the  whole  country  in  this  portion 
of  China. 


AUSTKALIA  AND  THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN.  245 

From  Shanghai  you  drift  down  the  gray  and  green 
and  yellow  coast  to  Foochow,  in  order  to  catch  a  tea 
ship  to  Australia.  On  the  Min  River  you  find  your- 
self in  a  mountainous  region,  sublimer  than  the  Dan- 
ube flows  through  anywhere  except  at  the  Iron  Gates. 
You  pass  your  last  night  in  Asia  in  a  stately  man- 
sion on  the  shore  of  a  river  more  beautiful  than  the 
Rhine,  and  in  a  chamber  with  an  outlook  superior 
in  most  physical  respects  to  that  from  the  castle  at 
Heidelberg.  The  city  of  Foochow  is  the  port  of  a 
vast  tea  region ;  and  it  is  from  that  portion  of  the 
Asiatic  coast  that  you  take  your  departure  into  the 
Tropics. 

Your  last  view  of  Asia  you  obtain  as  you  lose  sight 
of  the  bold  scenery  on  the  river  near  Foochow.  A 
loud  thunderstorm  is  lashing  the  barley  terraces,  the 
tea  plantations,  the  pine  forests,  and  the  grand, 
templed  hills,  as  you  lift  up  your  right  hand  and 
say,  "May  God  hasten  the  regeneration  of  Asia!" 
and  so,  with  a  tumult  of  emotion,  both  of  sadness 
and  of  hope,  you  turn  your  face,  probably  forever, 
from  the  most  thickly  peopled  continent  of  the  world. 

Three  hundred  miles  of  steaming  sea,  heavy  clouds, 
and  incessant  tropical  showers  ;  then  a  zone  of  calms, 
comparatively  clear  sky,  and  little  rain  ;  then  a  second 
long  stretch  of  steaming  sea,  low,  black  clouds,  and 
numberless  vigorous  showers  —  such  is  the  order  of 
your  experience  in  crossing  the  mystic  line  which 
separates  the  northern  from  the  southern  half  of  our 
wheeling  globe.  Your  decks  are  drenched  at  sunrise 
by  an  unusually  heavy  downpour,  in  which  the  rain 
seems  to  fall  in  sheets  and  streams,  rather  than  in 


246  ORIENT. 

drops.  This  clears  up  the  sweltering  heavens,  and 
soon  you  shoot  into  a  completely  quiefc  ocean,  and 
move  on  for  several  days  under  a  most  peaceful,  azure 
sky.  The  zone  of  calms,  as  Coleridge's  Ancient  Mar- 
iner says,  is  a  terror  only  to  sailing  vessels,  and  these 
lie  around  j^ou  in  stately  torpor  ;  but  the  engines  of 
your  steamer  rejoice  in  the  quietude  of  the  winds. 

Day  by  day  the  sun  rises  and  sinks,  and  the  stars 
and  the  crescent  moon  come  out  with  indescribable 
majesty  and  beauty.  Twelve  showers  at  one  mo- 
ment walk  around  the  rim  of  the  sky  over  the  dis- 
tant purple  of  the  tropical  ocean.  The  waves,  es- 
pecially near  noon,  are  of  a  deep,  crystalline  blue, 
which  you  never  saw  surpassed  in  intensity  of  color 
even  in  the  Mediterranean.  About  ten  o'  clock  one 
Monday  morning,  the  sun  shining  with  vigor,  but  not 
fiercely,  on  a  steel-gray  and  violet  sea,  in  which  no 
land  is  in  sight,  you  are  told  by  the  ship's  officers 
that  you  are  crossing  the  Equator.  There  is  no 
mark  on  sea  or  sky ;  but  there  is  nevertheless  above 
you  and  beneath  you  a  geographical  reality,  of  which 
the  effects  are  visible  through  all  the  zones.  Here 
the  trade-winds  rise,  and  to  this  region  they  return. 
Here  begins  the  mighty  system  of  currents  of  air, 
flowing  from  the  Equator  to  the  Poles  and  back 
again.  Your  thoughts  dart  around  the  world  on 
the  track  of  the  Equator  ;  hang  above  Borneo  and 
Sumatra,  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  great  African  lakes, 
the  sources  of  the  Nile,  the  Atlantic,  the  Amazon, 
the  Andes,  and  look  outward  to  the  tropical  lines  of 
Cancer  and  Capricorn,  and  beyond  them  to  the  two 
silent,  snow-capped  Poles,  and  beyond  these  to  Him 


AUSTRALIA   AND  THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN.  247 

who  upholds  them.  Here,  first,  as  you  dip  into  the 
Southern  Hemisphere,  and  find  the  sun  north  of  you 
at  noon,  you  begin  to  feel  the  sphericity  and  the  com- 
parative insignificance  of  the  size  of  our  globe. 

In  a  voyage  across  the  central  zone  of  the  earth, 
it  is  in  the  nights  that  the  chief  sublimities  of  the 
tropics  step  forth.  Ursa  Major  and  the  Southern 
Cross  stand  over  against  each  other  at  equal  heights, 
and  converse  with  each  other  across  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  world,  and  gaze  on  land  and  sea  with  looks  of 
benediction,  and  on  each  other  with  harmonious  in- 
terblending  of  light  and  movement,  and  upon  infinite 
space  around  them,  and  upon  the  unspeakable  Omni- 
presence in  it,  with  an  awe  and  worship  which,  strike 
you  dumb  for  many  an  hour.  The  Southern  Pole  is 
dark.  There  is  no  Southern  Polar  star  visible  to 
the  naked  eye.  A  large  region  around  the  Southern 
Pole  is  comparatively  ray  less.  But  at  about  the 
same  distance  from  the  Southern  Polar  point  that 
Ursa  Major  lies  from  the  Northern  hangs  the  South- 
ern Cross,  a  group  four  or  five  times  as  large  as  the 
Pleiades,  and  containing  one  star  of  the  first  magni- 
tude, two  of  the  second,  and  one  of  the  third.  The 
largest  star  is  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  the  next  largest 
at  the  top,  and  the  two  point  to  the  Southern  Pole. 
Above  the  Cross  five  stars,  two  of  them  of  the  first 
magnitude,  form  a  canopy  as  if  of  an  archangel's 
hand,  brooding  above  the  sacred  symbol.  In  the 
two  dark  places  which  resemble  key-holes  in  the 
sky,  and  which  sailors  call  the  coal-sacks^  you  seem 
to  be  looking  into  regions  to  which  is  reserved  the 
blackness  of  darkness  forever.    The  Magellanic  clouds 


248  ORIENT. 

appear  like  detached  portions  of  the  Milky  Way. 
The  lesser  cloud  has  been  found  to  contain  200  single 
stars,  37  nebulae,  and  7  star  clusters.  In  the  larger 
cloud  there  have  been  counted  582  single  stars,  291 
nebulae,  and  46  sun  clusters.  The  scale  of  the  uni- 
verse slowly  reveals  itself  to  you  in  many  nights  of 
solitude  at  sea.  The  apparent  distance  between  the 
large  and  the  small  star  which  lie  so  close  to  each 
other  at  the  bend  of  the  handle  of  the  Great  Dipper 
is  five  hundred  times  what  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
earth's  orbit  would  appear  to  be  if  seen  from  the 
nearest  fixed  star. 

"  The  fires  that  arch  this  dusky  dot, 
Yon  myriad  worlded  way, 
The  vast  sun-clusters'  gathered  blaze, 

"World-isles  in  lonely  skies, 
Whole  heavens  within  themselves,  amaze 
Our  brief  humanities." 

Tennyson. 

You  glide  smoothly  through  the  East  Indian  Archi- 
pelago ;  you  see  the  black,  naked  natives  among 
their  straw  huts  and  under  the  cocoanut  palms  on 
fehore.  All  along  the  sandy  beaches,  the  heavy  tim- 
ber, filled  with  a  tropical  tangle  of  vine  and  mosses, 
almost  dips  into  the  leaping  waves.  Uncouth  canoes 
ply  among  the  coral  reefs.  You  see  the  groves  in 
which  are  to  be  found  the  orang-outang  and  the 
birds  of  paradise. 

Australia  at  last  rises  from  beneath  the  Southern 
Sea.  It  is  a  gray,  windy  June  morning ;  and  the  tem- 
perature and  clouds  of  a  northern  November  come 
whisthng  up  from  the  ice-fields  of  the  South  Pole. 
You  sit  in  your  ocean-chair,  in  your  ulster,  and  write 


AUSTRALIA  AND  THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN.  249 

with  a  stiff  hand  in  the  frosty  air.  Bold,  blue 
mountains,  with  many  purple  bays  and  green-wooded 
headlands,  form  the  coast  on  which  you  look  across 
five  or  seven  miles  of  angry,  foaming,  autumnal  sea. 

As  you  write  at  the  foot  of  ftie  mast,  the  blue  sky 
begins  to  smile  above  the  brown  and  purple  shores. 
The  sociable  gulls  flock  above  the  wake  of  your  ship. 
The  stormy  petrels  skim  the  wrinkled  waves.  Now 
and  then  shoals  of  porpoises  shoot  with  easy  grace 
from  the  green,  huge,  watery  hills  and  slide  down 
them,  half  revealed  and  half  concealed  among  the 
azure  currents  and  silver  foam-bells. 

God  willing,  an  Anglo-American  alliance  will  yet 
encircle  the  world  !  You  are  in  Australia  partly  for 
the  purpose  of  studying  what  the  prospects  are  for 
the  moral  federation  of  the  English-speaking  popula- 
tion of  the  globe. 

Happy  valleys,  like  that  of  Rasselas,  lie  under  the 
cool  sunlight  as  you  gaze  westward  on  Australia 
from  your  ship,  which .  coasts  southward  now,  along 
gigantic  coral  reefs.  Forests  of  gray  gum-trees, 
which  shed  their  outer  bark,  but  not  their  foliage, 
rustle  in  the  fastnesses,  where  yet  roam  the  emu  and 
the  kangaroo.  The  silver  shafts  of  the  mellow  after- 
noon suns  fall  in  benediction  on  hedgeless  pastures 
and  bleating  flocks.  Pleiades  hangs  over  the  North- 
ern Sydney  head  as  your  ship,  at  five  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  your  nineteenth  day  from  Foochow,  turns 
into  the  famous  Sydney  Bay,  a  harbor  of  whose 
beauty  you  have  read  much,  but  which  exceeds,  as 
does  the  noble  and  proud  young  city  on  its  shores, 
your  high  expectations. 


250  ORIENT. 

What  are  the  organizing  dates  of  Australian  his- 
tory ?  1606,  the  island  discovered  by  the  Dutch ; 
1770,  East  Coast  discovered  by  Captain  Cook  ;  1788, 
Sydney  founded;  1837,  Melbourne  founded;  1851, 
gold  discovered  in  Y^ttoria  ;  1853,  transportation  of 
convicts  to  Australia  forbidden.  Around  these  six 
points  crystallize  Australian  years  thus  far. 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  Providence  to  bring  into 
existence  in  Australia  the  most  brilliant  group  of 
cities  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere.  Melbourne,  Syd- 
ney, Adelaide,  are  incomparablj^  the  most  important 
municipalities  south  of  the  Equator.  Brazil,  with  its 
ten  millions  of  people,  has  a  larger  population  than 
Australia  ;  but  far  more  than  half  of  them  belong  to 
a  servile  class,  or  to  one  which  was  lately  in  bondage. 
There  is  no  slavery  in  Australia,  thank  God,  and  not 
likely  to  be.  Although  some  abuses  in  the  labor 
trade  have  occurred  in  the  northern  parts  of  Queens- 
land, you  see  in  the  faces  of  your  superb  audiences 
at  Sydney,  Melbourne,  Adelaide,  and  Brisbane,  the 
thunderbolts  that  will  ultimately  put  an  end  to  the 
unrighteousness  of  the  coolie  traffic  in  Australia. 
You  find  in  the  three  or  four  millions  of  its  present 
population  the  pilgrim  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  fu- 
ture of  Australasia.  Here  are  as  many  people  as 
the  United  States  had  when  they  broke  off  from  the 
British  Empire. 

What  is  the  attitude  of  this  mass  of  human  be- 
ings toward  great  questions  of  religion  and  politics  ? 
What  are  the  promises  and  what  the  perils  of  the 
religious  future  of  Australasia  ? 

Among  the  promises,  notice  :  — 


AUSTRALIA   AND   THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.  251 

1.  The  quantity  of  the  prospective  population  — 
100,000,000,  at  least.  There  is  room  in  Australia 
and  the  islands  near  it  for  200,000,000  of  people. 
Look  at  the  map  and  observe  that  Austraha,  al- 
though it  could  be  buried  in  the  United  States, 
would  leave  very  little  extra  space.  Excluding 
Alaska,  we  have  just  over,  while  Australia  has  just 
under,  3,000,000  square  miles  of  soil.  The  interior 
of  Australia  is  by  no  means  as  nearly  a  desert  as  our 
older  geographies  led  us  to  suppose.  If  you  will  dig 
artesian  wells  for  your  flocks,  you  can  drive  them 
from  one  end  to  the  other  of  the  continent,  and  sup- 
port them  all  the  while  from  the  natural  pasturage. 
One  day  you  are  conversing  in  the  beautiful  city  of 
Adelaide  with  a  Scottish  gentleman,  prominent  in 
politics  and  education  and  a  great  holder  of  prop- 
erty in  the  interior  of  Australia.  You  mention  to 
him  the  Australian  desert.  ''  Why,"  he  says,  "  I 
am  soon  to  send  3,000  cattle  to  the  very  country  of 
which  you  are  speaking,  and  they  will  stay  there 
twelve  months."  With  proper  reservoirs  for  the 
rain  and  with  artesian  wells,  the  interior  of  Aus- 
tralia can  be  made  vastly  efficient  in  multiplying  the 
wealth  of  the  country  in  flocks  and  in  herds.  You 
remember,  too,  what  gold  mines  are  in  Australia ; 
and  how,  to  this  hour,  the  fear  of  exhausting  them 
is  a  thing  that  belongs  to  the  next  century.  Some 
are  exhausted,  or  appear  to  be ;  but  as  you  visit  Bal- 
larat  and  Sandhurst,  you  find  the  industrial  attitude 
and  sentiment  among  the  miners  and  great  specula- 
tors reminding  you  of  some  of  the  very  best  days  of 
our  Californian  gold  fever. 


252  ORIENT. 

2.  The  quality  of  the  population,  —  English  and 
Scotch,  and  chiefly  Protestant. 

Thank  Heaven  that  the  Southern  lands  are  not 
likely  to  be  settled  by  Asiatics,  but  by  the  foremost 
Western  peoples !  No  doubt  there  is  a  great  future 
before  Japan  and  China ;  but  it  is  fortunate  that 
Australia  is  not  to  be  indebted  to  them  for  more 
than  a  fragment  of  its  population.  It  is  quality 
that  makes  nations  great.  The  pioneers  of  Austra- 
lian civilization  are  picked  men.  The  vast  breadth 
of  ocean  which  separates  this  continental  island  from 
Great  Britain  and  Europe  acts  as  a  protective  tariff 
with  regard  to  the  things  of  character.  It  appalls 
drones.  Second-rate  men  have  rarely  pluck  enough 
to  go  across  this  breadth  of  sea. 

3.  Its  inheritance  of  high  ideals  and  approved  in- 
stitutions in  education,  politics,  and  church  life. 

4.  Its  achievement  up  to  the  present  time  in  edu- 
cation, politics,  and  religion. 

My  conviction  is  strong  that  Australia  is  more 
thoroughly  filled  with  the  best  influences  of  British 
civilization  than  our  Pacific  slope  is  with  the  best  of 
American.  Australia  has  herself  done  better  things 
for  her  churches  and  her  schools  than  our  Pacific 
slope  has  yet  done  for  its  own. 

5.  The  freedom  of  the  population  from  precedent, 
and  its  inclination  and  opportunity  to  choose  the 
newest  and  best  fashions  in  everything. 

6.  Its  broad  suffrage,  and  the  consequent  political 
necessity  that  it  should  make  education  and  religious 
training  general. 

7.  Its  separation  of  church  and  state,  and  the  con- 


AUSTRALIA  AND  THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN.  253 

sequent  necessity  that  the  churches  should  depend  on 
self-help,  and  not  on  state  help ;  the  unity,  purity, 
and  aggressiveness  this  necessity  will  foster. 

8.  Its  close  moral  and  educational,  as  well  as  polit- 
ical connection  with  England  and  Scotland. 

9.  Its  distance  from  corrupting  neighbors  and  the 
usual  paths  of  wars. 

10.  Its  prospective  political  confederation. 

11.  Its  mobility  of  ranks  in  society,  and  the  conse- 
quent aspiration  of  the  masses  for  culture. 

12.  Its  central  position  and  immense  opportunity 
for  usefulness  in  Japan,  China,  and  India. 

You  think  it  strange  that  intercolonial  tariffs 
should  be  kept  up  between  the  Australasian  colo- 
nies, and  so  do  the  best  men  of  those  colonies  them- 
selves. The  presence  of  a  little  common  danger  — 
say  the  appearance  of  a  couple  of  Russian  privateers 
off  the  Australian  coast  —  would  precipitate  the  con- 
federation of  these  rival  provinces.  They  now  tax 
each  other.  They  are  as  proud  of  their  separateness 
as  in  twenty-five  or  fifty  years  they  may  be  of  their 
union. 

Each  leading  city  expects  to  be  the  capital  of  the 
confederation.  There  are  at  least  three  cities  that 
are  prominent  candidates  for  this  position,  —  Syd- 
ney, Melbourne,  and  Adelaide  ;  and  admirable  cities 
they  are,  either  of  them  worthy  of  being  the  capital 
of  a  great  nation.  Sydney,  the  first  one  you  visit,  — 
Sydney,  with  its  hundred  bays  ;  Sydney,  possessed  of 
the  finest  harbor  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  unless 
it  be  that  of  Rio  ;  Sydney,  which  is  a  dream  of  beauty 
in  its  position  by  land  and  sea,  —  is  a  royal  child,  not 


254  ORIENT. 

unworthy  of  its  parentage  in  stalwart  emigrant  pop- 
ulations from  England. 

There  was  once  a  Botany  Bay  near  Sydney ;  but 
if  you  go  to  Australia  and  speak  of  the  population 
there  as  being  descended  from  convicts,  your  mouth 
is  soon  closed,  not  by  a  haughty  reply  without  fact 
behind  it,  but  by  actual  evidence.  It  is  true  that 
convict  families  have  had  successors  in  Australia ; 
but  the  whole  system  of  the  transportation  of  convicts 
became  a  gehenna.  Australia  herself  was  one  of  the 
foremost  powers  in  that  combination  of  forces  which 
caused  its  abolition.  Since  1853  this  transportation 
has  ceased,  and  that  date  now  is  a  long  way  off. 

The  population  has  increased  faster,  in  many  por- 
tions of  Australia,  than  in  any  part  of  our  Amer- 
ican Union  during  the  last  twenty  years.  The 
result  is  that  the  present  atmosphere  of  society  in 
Sydney  reminds  you  of  that  of  London.  The  pres- 
ent atmosphere  of  Adelaide  reminds  you  of  Edin- 
burgh. Melbourne  can  receive  no  higher  compli- 
ment from  your  present  speaker  than  the  assertion 
that  she  is  the  most  like  Boston  of  any  city  he  has 
visited  on  a  tour  around  the  world.  Melbourne  is 
aggressive,  incisive,  almost  breathless  in  her  activ- 
ity—  the  most  American  of  all  the  Australian  cities. 
Sydney  would  not  like  this  praise  of  Melbourne,  and 
Melbourne  would  not  like  my  praise  of  Sydney ;  and 
yet,  after  all,  their  rivalry  is  more  good-humored 
banter  than  serious  commercial  collision.  There  are, 
no  doubt,  some  important  conflicts  of  interests  be- 
tween the  two ;  but  they  will  drift,  within  fifty,  or 
at  most  a  hundred  years,  as  I  think,  into  the  most 
peaceful  confederation. 


AUSTKALIA   AND   THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.  255 

As  one  nation,  Australians  will  feel  that  their 
responsibilities  are  continental.  Australasia,  first  or 
last,  will  naturally  draw  into  the  circle  of  its  polit- 
ical control  most  of  the  islands  south  of  the  Equator. 
Confederation  will  strengthen  all  the  excellent  ten- 
dencies of  the  country,  and  enhance  the  value  of  the 
inheritance  and  achievement  of  the  population — its 
freedom,  universal  suffrage,  high  education,  immense 
industrial  opportunity,  political  and  moral  example, 
and  separation  of  church  and  state. 

In  Australasia,  as  I  believe,  are  to  originate  impor- 
tant forces  facilitating  reform  throughout  the  East. 
From  the  centre  of  a  population  of  100,000,000  un- 
der the  Southern  Cross  will  be  shot  javelins  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  lofty  political  and  educational  influ- 
ences into  the  very  heart  of  Japan,  India,  and  China, 
and  even  of  the  Dark  Continent  itself. 

Notice  next  a  list  of  the  perils  in  the  religious 
future  of  these  colonies  under  the  Southern  Cross :  — 

1.  The  concentration  of  its  population  in  cities, 
and  the  comparative  smallness  of  the  rural  popu- 
lation. 

2.  The  necessity  of  managing  cities  under  univer- 
sal suffrage  and  party  government. 

3.  The  absence  of  an  aristocracy  and  a  leisured 
class,  to  set  a  high  standard  in  manners  and  social 
fashions. 

4.  The  formation  of  new  classes  in  society,  espe- 
cially of  a  lawless  and  explosive  lower  class,  a  push- 
ing middle  class,  and  an  overworked  upper  class. 

5.  The  crude,  transitional  state  of  the  democratic 
thought  of  the  masses  in  our  day. 


256  ORIENT. 

6.  The  rising  to  power  of  a  generation  that  has  not 
seen  England  or  Scotland. 

7.  The  opportunity  to  gain  wealth  swiftly,  and 
hence  haste  to  be  rich. 

8.  Passion  for  amusement  and  luxury, 

9.  Excessive  secularism,  arising  from  the  complete 
abolition  of  church  and  state  in  a  population  not  ac- 
customed to  the  exclusive  use  of  the  voluntary  system 
in  church  affairs. 

10.  Sectarian  rivalry  from  the  same  cause. 

11.  Bondage  of  pulpit  to  pews  under  the  voluntary 
system. 

12.  Climate,  increasing  the  danger  of  the  charac- 
teristic vices,  and  weakening  the  characteristic  virtues 
of  the  British  people,  —  energy  and  purity  suffering 
always  some  diminution  in  sub-tropical  regions. 

After  all,  I  regard  this  climatic  influence  as  by  no 
means  the  least  of  the  perils  of  the  northern  Austra- 
lian populations.  Britons  in  Queensland  are  in  the 
climate  of  Spain  and  Algiers.  Tasmania  is  like 
England  in  her  climate.  New  Zealand  resembles 
portions  of  the  mother  island,  but  the  most  of  Aus- 
tralia lies  in  a  sub-tropical  climate  ;  and  already,  in 
the  younger  population,  you  begin  to  find  developed 
some  of  the  fringes  of  the  vices  of  Spain  and  Italy, 
and  of  the  whole  region  of  the  sub  -  tropical  world. 
Such  intemperance  as  Britons  hardly  survive  at  home 
is  swiftly  fatal  in  Australia.  Let  the  populations 
under  the  Southern  Cross  be  delivered  from  the  vices 
peculiar  to  highly  heated  climates  ;  let  Christianity 
purify  civilization  there  in  such  a  manner  that  it  may 
shine  with  beams  as  keen  as  those  of  any  northern 


AUSTRALIA  AND  THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN.  257 

constellation ;  and  there  will  not  be  on  the  face  of 
the  globe  in  one  hundred  years —  except  probably  in 
the  American  Republic  —  a  more  influential  gather- 
ing of  English-speaking  people  than  in  Australasia  at 
large. 

Australia  is  the  most  Americanized  portion  of  the 
British  Empire.  It  is  so  vast  that  in  the  few  months 
which  you  spend  in  it,  in  meeting  crowded  lecture 
appointments,  you  cannot  see  half  of  it.  But  Aus- 
tralia concentrates  its  population  in  large  towns.  In 
fifteen  cities  of  Australia  and  Tasmania  in  which  you 
lecture,  you  find  more  than  half  the  population.  The 
towns  cling  to  the  river-courses  and  the  best  sea-ports. 
Australia  is,  and  for  ages  is  likely  to  be,  a  crescent 
of  population.  The  tips  of  it  are  at  Port  Darwin  in 
the  north,  and  at  Adelaide  in  the  south.  The  chief 
thickness  of  it  is  at  Brisbane,  Sydney,  and  Melbourne. 
This  crescent  will  enlarge  until,  perhaps,  there  may 
be  in  it,  in  Australia  alone,  an  hundred  millions  of 
people.  Near  the  crescent  will  burn  two  stars  of 
the  first  magnitude — Tasmania  and  New  Zealand. 
Minor  stars,  like  the  Fijis  and  other  islands  under 
British  control,  will  surround  this  group,  and  so  the 
whole  constellation  will  float  through  the  azure  of 
history. 

British  Imperial  Federation  is  favored  by  the  best 
minds  in  Australia.  Victoria  is  the  determined  ad- 
vocate of  Australian  confederation.  New  South 
Wales,  as  yet,  has  treated  this  great  proposal  with 
much  coolness.  Several  of  her  statesmen  fear  that 
local  confederation  might  lead  to  a  movement  for 
Australasian  independence,  and  so  defeat  or  delay 

17 


258  OKIENT. 

Imperial  Federation.  It  is  to  be  devoutly  hoped  that 
such  wisdom  will  preside  over  the  political,  educa- 
tional, and  religious  counsels  of  the  British  Empire 
that  the  mother  islands  and  Australasia  may  belong 
to  one  political  organization  as  long  as  Ursa  Major 
and  the  Southern  Cross  belong  to  one  sky ! 

Pausing  only  for  a  single  lecture  at  beautiful  Auck- 
land, in  green  New  Zealand,  you  move  northward, 
through  the  placid  Pacific  and  its  clustered  islands, 
its  tropical  showers,  its  refreshing  trade- winds,  and 
beneath  its  amazing  night  skies,  in  which  a  vast 
comet  blazes  among  the  southern  constellations.  At 
last  the  shadows  once  more  begin  to  fall  southward 
at  noon. 

On  a  dazzling  day,  full  of  peace  on  sea  and  land, 
the  Sandwich  Islands  lift  themselves  from  the  steel- 
blue  and  violet  seas.  You  meet  a  chief  justice,  sev- 
eral professors  and  missionaries,  see  the  king,  gather 
a  collection  of  curiosities  and  state  documents,  deliver 
a  lecture,  and  return  to  your  steamer  through  the 
.tropical  dusk,  all  inside  of  five  hours. 

You  are  leaving  at  Honolulu  the  last  land  that  you 
are  to  visit  before  you  see  once  more  America,  your 
own.  There  is  a  crowd  on  the  wharf,  partly  of 
Americans,  but  chiefly  of  natives ;  and,  as  your  ma- 
jestic steamer  drops  off  shore  into  the  scented  dark, 
you  hear  many  voices  call  out  "  Aloha,"  which  is  the 
Hawaiian  for  "  Farewell,  and  God  bless  you."  You 
have  studied  these  islands  from  afar,  and  understand 
very  well  that  this  call  is  in  some  sense  the  wail  of  a 
race  about  to  be  exterminated.  Morituri  salufamus,  — 
"  We  who  are  about  to  die  salute  you."     There  is 


AUSTRALIA  AND  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN.  259 

endless  pathos  in  the  tender  intonation  of  the  final 
courteous  wish  of  the  natives  as  you  drift  from  their 
shore.  You  find  summed  up  in  that  wail  your  whole 
experience  of  listening  to  the  innermost  heart  of  hu- 
manity. In  that  wail  you  hear  the  millions  of  India 
utter  their  desire  for  progress,  the  millions  of  China 
call  out  for  a  better  future,  Japan  express  herself 
with  emphasis  on  the  side  of  advanced  civilization, 
the  islands  of  all  the  seas  lift  up  their  prayer  to 
Almighty  God  for  regeneration. 

As  the  Southern  Cross  sinks  from  view  below  the 
rim  of  the  sea,  and  your  tour  of  the  world  begins  to 
approach  completion,  you  feel,  for  more  than  an  hour 
or  a  day,  like  turning  back  upon  your  course  and  vis- 
iting again  every  people  that  you  have  found  strug- 
gling toward  the  light.  Your  heart  is  on  the  Thames 
and  the  Rhine,  indeed ;  it  is  on  the  Tiber  and  the 
Ilissus  ;  but  you  find  your  enthusiasms  for  classical 
lands  overborne  by  the  tides  of  new  Oriental  and 
Southern  enthusiasms.  Your  heart  is  on  the  Ganges 
and  on  the  Yang  Tse  Kiang ;  it  is  on  the  slopes  of  Fuji- 
Yama  and  the  Himalayas ;  it  is  on  the  shores  of  Aus- 
tralia and  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific;  it  is  here  in 
the  Hawaiian  group  at  the  foot  of  Mauna  Loa.  You 
feel  almost  ready  to  make  a  resolve  to  go  back  around 
the  globe  before  you  die,  if  God  will,  and  this  time 
toward  the  setting  sun,  and  meet  once  more  all  the 
nations  that  the  English  speech  can  reach.  You  lean 
in  the  midnight  against  the  mast  of  your  ship,  and 
look  upward  to  the  familiar  constellations  which  now 
begin  to  rise  out  of  the  north.  They  are  tremor  less 
in  spite  of  the  tossing  of  all  beneath  you,  and  your 


260  ORIENT. 

heart  is  as  fixed  as  they,  never,  on  land  or  sea,  to  be 
disloyal  to  international  duties.  America  is  dear  to 
you  as  never  before.  The  first  sight  of  it,  as  you 
strain  your  lonely  and  thirsty  eyes  eastward,  av^akens 
unspeakable  emotion.  You  have  been  a  pilgrim  long. 
On  the  sunrise  of  your  twenty-fifth  day  from  Syd- 
ney, the  blue  heights  of  the  Coast  Range,  above  the 
dim  mists  that  shroud  the  Farallone  Islands  and  the 
Golden  Gate,  greet  you  from  your  own  skies.  El 
Capitan  seems  near.  Whether  you  have  any  friends 
left  to  you  in  your  native  land,  you  do  not  know. 
You  make  no  predictions,  no  promises  ;  but  you  are 
resolved  that,  whatever  may  betide,  you  will  do  your 
utmost  while  j^ou  live  to  lift  your  own  nation  to  a 
sense  of  cosmopolitan  obligations. 

Nowhere  on  the  globe  is  there  a  nation  which  has 
such  influence  beyond  its  own  borders  as  our  own. 
Great  Britain  has  more  political,  but  the  United 
States  more  moral,  influence  than  any  other  nation. 
It  is  because  of  the  advance  of  education  and  democ- 
,racy  ;  it  is  because  of  the  progress  of  Christianity, 
that  at  the  bottom  of  the  wail  of  every  struggling 
people  you  find  American  aspirations.  In  Switzer- 
land I  heard  the  news  of  the  death  of  Garfield,  and 
all  the  Alps  seemed  quivering  in  sympathy  with  our 
national  bereavement.  In  Ceylon  I  heard  of  the 
death  of  Longfellow,  and  all  the  tropical  forests 
seemed  trembling  in  pain  at  our  grief.  In  the  Inland 
Sea  of  Japan  I  heard  of  the  death  of  Emerson,  and 
all  the  sacred  groves  seemed  uttering  their  sympathy 
with  our  loss.  Wherever  on  the  earth  I  have  put  my 
ear  upon  the  breast  of  the  nations  and  listened,  not  to 


AUSTKALIA   AND   THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.  261 

what  the  people  are  ready  to  say  publicly  in  the  face 
of  tyranny,  but  to  what  they  say  at  firesides  and  in 
their  secret  thoughts,  I  have  always  heard  the  echo 
of  President  Lincoln's  prayer,  that  governments  of 
the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people,  may  not 
perish  from  the  earth.  There  is  another  prayer  ut- 
tered by  One  whose  pierced  palms  are  moulding  the 
ages  into  the  pattern  which  He  loves  —  a  prayer  that 
we  all  may  be  one.  You  land  in  America  resolved 
to  make  that  prayer  your  own  while  life  lasts.  You 
return  hoping  that  those  pierced  palms  which  have 
lifted  heathenism  off  its  hinges  and  turned  into  new 
channels  the  dolorous  and  accursed  ages,  may  deci- 
sively mould  you  and  your  nation  and  all  the  earth 
until  the  ideal  of  the  Heart  behind  them  becomes 
that  of  the  entire  family  of  man.  Your  supreme  wish 
is  to  draw  the  whole  globe  into  God's  bosom  so 
closely  that  the  sound  of  His  pulses  may  become  the 
marching  song  of  all  the  ages. 

"  Ring,  bells,  in  unreared  steeples. 
The  joy  of  unborn  peoples  ; 
Sound,  trumpets,  far  off  blown ; 
Your  triumph  is  our  own." 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX  I. 


THE  TAJ  MAHAL. 

Bishop  Heber  lias  described  the  Taj  Mahal  as  a 
dream  in  marble,  designed  by  Titans  and  finished  by- 
jewelers.  Early  in  the  morning,  before  the  sun  is 
up,  the  dazzlingly  white  form  of  this  marvelous  struc- 
ture, as  seen  from  the  plains  around  Agra,  is  said  to 
appear  light  blue.  As  the  sun  rises,  it  takes  a  rose- 
ate hue  from  the  glowing  East.  When  a  storm  is 
impending,  and  dark  purple  clouds  fill  the  sky,  it 
has  a  delicately  soft  violet  color.  The  most  striking 
effect  is  produced  by  moonlight,  in  which  its  domes 
are  changed  to  silver,  and  seem  to  float  through  space 
as  an  aerial  vision. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  see  the  Taj  Mahal  first  at  sun- 
rise. On  a  crystalline  morning,  as  our  train  glided 
along  the  palm  -  clad  banks  of  the  turbid  Jumna, 
through  brown,  level  fields,  on  looking  up  from  the 
fascinating  page  of  history  which  I  was  reading,  I 
saw,  unexpectedly  and  at  no  great  distance,  the  won- 
derfully graceful  domes  and  minarets  of  the  Taj  in 
the  fresh  gardens  around  it,  on  the  southern  border 
of  the  sacred  affluent  of  the  Ganges.  Symmetry,  dig- 
nity, stateliness,  but  not  massiveness,  were  the  chief 


266  APPENDIX. 

characteristics  of  the  architecture  as  viewed  from  a 
distance.  The  domes  were  gleaming  silver  bubbles 
at  the  edge  of  the  sky,  themselves  almost  as  trans- 
parent in  appearance  as  the  azure  itself.  Aspiration 
and  a  certain  devoutness  were  expressed  by  the  pure 
white  of  the  towering  pinnacles  ;  but  the  flame  of 
the  building  by  no  means  rose  to  the  sky  as  prayer- 
fully and  overawingly  as  that  of  a  Gothic  cathedral. 
The  Taj,  however,  is  not  a  temple,  but  a  tomb.  It 
was  built  to  be  a  resplendent  and  stately  memorial  of 
domestic  affection  rather  than  a  public  shrine  of  re- 
ligious devotion.  Shah  Jehan  erected  the  Taj  Mahal 
as  a  memorial  of  a  beloved  wife,  Banoo  Begum.  He 
is  himself  buried  in  it,  at  her  side.  It  is  to  be  judged 
by  the  effectiveness  with  which  its  architecture 
achieves  its  own  predetermined  and  peculiar  pur- 
poses. To  compare  the  Taj  with  Milan  Cathedral  or 
with  York  Minster,  and  condemn  it,  because  it  is  less 
religiously  impressive  than  they  are,  is  unfair,  for  it 
is  not  a  building  of  parallel  aims.  For  a  similar  rea- 
,  son  it  cannot  be  justly  contrasted  with  the  Parthe- 
non. I'he  solace  of  bereavement  is  the  hope  of  im- 
mortality, and  so  the  Taj  is  naturally  enough  covered 
with  sacred  texts  inlaid  in  precious  stones,  and  in- 
tended to  lift  the  thoughts  of  all  observers  to  a  world 
to  come ;  but  no  religious  services  are  held  in  the 
building.  It  is  a  spot  intended  not  for  public  and 
congregated  worship,  but  for  private  grief  and  secret 
prayer.  If  public  worship  is  to  be  performed  on  the 
grounds  of  the  Taj,  the  place  for  it  is  in  one  of  the 
two  mosques  which  face  the  central  building.  This 
itself  is  consecrated  exclusively  to  the  memory  of  the 


THE   TAJ   MAHAL.  267 

dead,  and  to  the  sacred  sorrows,  meditations,  and  de- 
votions of  mourners. 

The  Great  Moghul  Emperor  Akbar,  fourth  in  de- 
scent from  Tamerlane,  was  a  contemporaiy  of  Shake- 
speare and  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  building  the  tomb 
of  his  father,  Humayun,  at  Delhi,  he  set  the  architec- 
tural example  which  his  grandson.  Shah  Jehan,  af- 
terward copied  in  the  Taj.  The  magnificent  tomb  of 
Humayun  is  yet  standing  at  Delhi.  It  is  one  hun- 
dred years  older  than  the  Taj,  but  is  of  almost  ex- 
actly parallel  design.  It  is  constructed  of  reddish 
stone,  while  the  Taj  is  of  pure  white  marble.  It  has 
little  ornamentation,  while  the  Taj  has  much.  It 
has  no  minarets  at  its  corners,  while  the  Taj  has 
four.  In  nearly  every  other  point  the  resemblance 
between  it  and  the  more  famous  building  is  so  start- 
lingly  close  that  the  substantial  parts  of  the  design 
of  the  Taj  Mahal  must  be  held  to  be  less  the  work 
of  Shah  Jehan  than  of  Akbar.  He  gathered  at  his 
court  representatives  of  all  the  best  culture  known  to 
him.  Nominally  a  Mohammedan,  Akbar,  in  theology, 
philosophy,  and  art,  was  distinctively  and  sometimes 
defiantly  an  eclectic. 

It  is  conceded  by  all  reputable  historians  of  the 
Moghul  Empire  that  Byzantine  and  Florentine  ar- 
tists were  in  the  employment  of  Shah  Jehan.  Man- 
rique,  a  Spanish  monk  of  the  Augustinian  order,  who 
was  in  Agra  in  1641,  attributes  the  design  of  the  Taj 
Mahal  to  a  Venetian,  by  name  Geronimo  Verromeo. 
After  his  death,  the  work  is  believed  to  have  been 
made  over  to  a  Byzantine  Turk.  Austin,  a  French 
artist,  is  said  to  have  been  consulted  as  to  the  orna- 


268  APPENDIX. 

mentation  before  it  was  completed.  His  portrait  in 
pietra  dura  was  once  to  be  seen  at  the  back  of  the 
throne  in  Shah  Jehan's  palace,  in  the  fort  of  New 
Delhi.  He  is  mentioned  by  Bernier  and  Tavernier. 
Florentine  work  in  pietra  dura  dates  from  about  1570. 
Nevertheless,  as  a  glance  at  the  building  will  show, 
the  general  design  of  the  Taj,  and  even  of  its  orna- 
mentation in  mosaic,  is  not  Italian,  not  French,  not 
Hindu,  but  the  purest  Saracenic.  The  truth  seems 
to  be  that  in  some  of  the  details  of  the  ornamentation 
foreign  artists  were  employed ;  but  that  all  the  chief 
parts  of  the  plan,  found  as  they  are  in  the  tomb  of 
Humayun,  which  was  erected  in  1556,  are  to  be  at- 
tributed to  Saracenic  art. 

The  Taj  Mahal  is  a  modern  building,  of  a  date 
not  more  remote  than  the  colonization  of  Boston  or 
the  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock.  Inscriptions  over  its 
windows  and  gateways  state  that  it  was  finished  in 
1648.  It  is  said  to  have  been  begun  in  1630,  and  to 
have  employed  the  compulsory  labor  of  20,000  men 
,  for  seventeen  years. 

At  two  o'clock  ill  a  cool,  bright  afternoon,  I  drove 
with  my  wife  to  the  Taj,  and  we  spent  there  five 
hours,  ending  with  the  sunset  and  moonlight,  and  al- 
lowed the  architecture  and  the  gardens  to  exert  upon 
us  their  full  allurement.  Next  day,  after  visits  to 
Akbar's  tomb  and  Shah  Jehan's  Pearl  Mosque,  we 
were  again  at  the  Taj  Mahal  in  the  afternoon  and 
moonlight  for  many  hours,  which  passed  as  if  in  a 
kind  of  trance. 

The  grounds  of  the  enclosure  around  the  Taj  are 
1,860  feet  long  by  more  than  1,000  wide,  with  the 


THE   TAJ   MAHAL.  269 

narrow  end  next  the  Jumna,  whicli  here  runs  in  a 
beautiful  curve  from  west  to  east.  They  are  sur- 
rounded by  a  massive  wall,  fifteen  feet  high,  and 
filled  with  abundant  and  choice  trees  and  flowers. 
The  roses  of  the  Taj  gardens  are  celebrated  through- 
out India  for  their  size,  colors,  fragrance,  and  variety. 
The  south  end  of  the  grounds  contains  a  lofty  and 
elaborate  gateway  of  red  stone,  with  white  marble 
trimmings,  and  is  flanked  by  a  wall,  with  many  pil- 
lared recesses  and  cusped  arches  on  both  the  outer 
and  inner  sides.  Entering  through  this  stately  por- 
tal, itself  a  noble  monument  of  Saracenic  art,  the  ob- 
server sees  the  white  marble  front  of  the  Taj,  about 
1,500  feet  from  him,  shut  in  by  the  luxuriant  foliage 
of  the  gardens,  and  usually  screened  by  the  spray  of 
a  straight  line  of  fifty  or  more  fountains,  throwing 
up  each  a  single  jet,  some  fifteen  feet  high. 

As  we  entered,  the  fountains  were  not  playing ; 
but  the  quiet  water,  in  the  long,  straight  tank  in 
which  they  stood,  reflected  beautifully  a  portion  of 
the  Taj.  My  feeling  is  that  it  would  be  an  improve- 
ment to  place  between  the  southern  gate  and  the  Taj 
a  broad  pool,  wide  enough  to  mirror  all  its  domes  and 
minarets,  and  thus  double  the  impressiveness  of  the 
vision.  The  fountains  might  be  arranged  much  more 
gracefully  around  the  marble  edges  of  such  a  pool  than 
in  a  straight  line  in  a  tank,  as  they  now  stand. 

We  walked  down  the  gardens  at  the  side  of  the 
fountains,  and  soon  found  ourselves  on  the  lowermost 
platform  of  the  Taj,  at  the  north  end  of  the  grounds. 
This  is  only  four  feet  above  the  level  of  the  gardens, 
but  there  rises  from  it  a  central  platform  of  white 


270  APPENDIX. 

marble,  313  feet  square  and  18  high.  On  this  the 
Taj  is  erected,  a  rectangular  building,  187  feet  in 
depth  and  breadth,  but  with  its  corners  cut  off,  so 
that  the  whole  forms  an  eight-sided  ground  plan. 
The  central  dome,  50  feet  in  diameter,  rises  with  its 
finials  243  feet.  Four  smaller  domes  surround  it. 
At  each  corner  of  the  great  platform,  and  wholly  de- 
tached from  the  central  building,  there  stands  a  min- 
aret 137  feet  high. 

Everything,  from  the  base  of  the  great  central  plat- 
form upward,  is  of  pure  white  marble.  On  the  right 
hand  and  the  left,  however,  at  a  distance  of  perhaps 
fifty  yards,  stand  two  subsidiary  structures  of  red 
stone,  each  facing  the  Taj,  and  ornamented  with 
white  marble  and  with  domes  of  the  same  material. 
These  are  mosques  ;  but  only  one  of  them  faces  to- 
ward Mecca,  and  only  this  is  used  for  religious  pur- 
poses. The  other  is  called  the  False  Mosque,  and 
was  added  to  balance  the  true  one,  so  as  to  preserve 
the  symmetry  of  the  architectural  group. 

Ascending  the  great  marble  platform,  we  advanced 
across  it  to  the  dazzlingly  white  side  of  the  Taj,  and 
entered  the  building  through  its  very  lofty  portal, 
which  impressed  us  by  the  purity  of  its  material,  the 
symmetry  of  its  design,  and  the  serious  texts  written 
in  bold  mosaic  around  its  margins.  On  the  exterior 
the  Taj  has  texts  of  the  Koran  worked  with  black 
marble  into  the  white  marble  as  borders  for  its  gigan- 
tic porches  and  its  windows.  Arabesques  of  similar 
inscriptions  ornament  the  summits  of  the  eight  sides. 
Around  the  base  are  chiseled  delicate  carvings  of  the 
lotus  flower  and  the  lily.     The  ornamentation  of  the 


THE  TAJ   MAHAL.  271 

exterior  nowhere  strikes  one  as  excessive,  and  har- 
monizes admirably  with  the  general  effect  of  the 
architecture.  The  moment  we  entered  the  interior, 
however,  the  sense  of  the  ornament  everywhere  in- 
troduced in  the  lower  half  of  the  great  octagonal  hall 
beneath  the  central  dome  became  intense,  and  for  a 
while  almost  oppressive.  The  tombs  of  Banoo  Begum 
and  of  Shah  Jehan  are  nearly  under  the  centre  of  the 
dome.  The  long  marble  sarcophagi  blazed  with  the 
richest  inlaid  work.  They  were  once  thickly  set  with 
precious  stones.  Around  them  has  been  placed  an  oc- 
tagonal marble  screen,  some  seven  feet  high,  and  on 
it,  as  well  as  on  the  pilasters  of  the  solemn  chamber, 
the  skill  of  the  worker  in  various  colored  marbles  has 
been  poured  out  in  a  lavish  deluge.  The  screen  is 
about  two  inches  thick,  and  is  so  perforated  as  to 
look,  at  a  little  distance,  like  white  lace-work.  Seen 
near  at  hand,  its  borders  are  found  to  be  inlaid  every- 
where with  work  as  fine  as  the  best  specimens  of  Flor- 
entine mosaic.  The  chief  subjects  represented  by  the 
colored  stones  are  flowers  and  leaves.  In  the  bendings 
and  juxtapositions  of  the  figures  the  laws  of  perspec- 
tive and  of  light  and  shadow  are  observed  with  the 
happiest  effect.  It  is  in  this  inlaid  work  that  Italian 
aid  was  probably  given  to  the  Moghul  designers  of 
the  Taj  ;  and  yet  the  abundance  and  general  arrange- 
ment of  the  ornamentation  are  not  Italian,  but  Sara- 
cenic. 

On  the  pilasters  and  walls  of  the  lower  half  of  the 
octagonal  inner  chamber,  the  work  in  pietra  dura 
flames  out  from  every  quarter.  Half  way  up  the  pil- 
lared shade  a  frieze  extends  around  the  hall,  bearing 


272  APPENDIX. 

quotations  from  the  Koran.  Here  are  jasper  from 
the  Punjaub,  carnelians  from  Bagdad,  turquoises  from 
Thibet,  agate  from  Yeman,  lapis  lazuli  from  Ceylon, 
coral  from  Arabia  and  the  Red  Sea,  garnets  from 
Bundelkund,  diamonds  from  Poonah,  loadstone  from 
Gwalior,  sapphires  from  Lunka,  chalcedony  from  Vil- 
lait,  onyx  and  amethyst  from  Persia.  Most  of  these 
precious  stones  were  received  in  place  of  tribute  from 
different  nations  under  Shah  Jehan's  rule,  or  as  pres- 
ents. The  white  marble  came  from  Jeypore,  in  Raj- 
pootana  ;  the  yellow  from  the  banks  of  the  Nerbudda. 
There  are  no  windows  of  glass  in  the  Taj.  The 
great  recesses,  where  windows  would  be  placed  in  a 
Gothic  cathedral,  are  filled  with  marble  lattice- work, 
so  beautifully  designed  as  at  once  to  admit  the  light 
and  exclude  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  The  dome 
has  in  it  no  openings  whatever,  and  so  the  interior 
lacks  that  expression  of  aspiration  which  is  the  chief 
glory  of  St.  Peter's,  or  St.  Paul's,  or  of  the  Pantheon. 
Neither  does  the  outline  of  the  interior  of  the  dome 
correspond  with  that  of  the  exterior.  The  true  tombs 
df  Shah  Jehan  and  of  his  wife  are  in  the  basement  of 
the  building,  in  a  space  entered  only  by  a  sloping  mar- 
ble passage,  and  lighted  from  its  single  door.  The 
highly  ornamented  sarcophagi,  in  the  octagonal  hall 
above,  are  placed  exactly  over  the  true  tombs  below. 
So  in  Akbar's  magnificent  tomb  among  the  giant  tam- 
arinds of  Secundra,  near  Agra,  the  vault  in  which  his 
body  lies  is  in  the  base  of  the  structure  ;  but  the  cele- 
brated block  of  marble  which  is  shown  as  his  memo- 
rial, and  is  inscribed  with  ninety-nine  names  of  the 
Deity,  is  at  the  summit. 


THE   TAJ   MAHAL.  273 

Coming  out  into  the  light  of  a  low  western  sun,  we 
ascended  one  of  the  minarets,  and  afterward  the  great 
southern  gate,  and  gazed  upon  the  whole  architec- 
tural group,  taken  as  a  unit.  We  were  more  and 
more  impressed  by  its  combination  of  vigor  and  bold- 
ness with  symmetry  and  beauty  ;  nor  did  we  feel  that 
the  ornamentation  was,  on  the  whole,  excessive.  Al- 
though the  entire  impression  is  undoubtedly  feminine, 
the  proportions  of  the  building  are  so  large  and  noble 
that  it  cannot  with  any  justice  be  called  a  mere  jewel 
or  toy.  Zoffany's  remark,  that  all  the  Taj  needs  is 
a  glass  case,  appeared  to  us  as  unappreciative  as  it  is 
surly.  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  or  even  the  Kutub 
Minar,  is  not  as  high  as  the  central  dome  of  the  Taj. 
Its  breadth  and  elevation  are  both  underrated  on  ac- 
count of  the  matchless  symmetry  of  the  whole  struc- 
ture. If  I  had  some  difficulty  in  indorsing  Bishop 
Heber's  remark  that  the  Taj  was  designed  by  Titans, 
I  had  none  at  all  in  affirming  that  its  plan  would  have 
been  worthy  of  the  feminine  genius  of  a  Raphael,  al- 
though not  of  the  entire  mind  of  a  Michel  Angelo. 

The  green  parrots  flew,  screaming,  above  the  rust- 
ling tamarinds  and  bamboos  and  mangoes  and  deli- 
cate acacias  and  stately  palms  of  the  gardens.  From 
secluded  distances  came  the  notes  of  the  mourning 
dove  and  of  the  barbet,  a  small  bird  with  tones  re- 
sembling those  of  the  cuckoo,  —  a  little  drop  of  celes- 
tial melody  to  which  I  have  listened  with  inexpres- 
sible delight  at  a  thousand  places  throughout  the 
whole  length  of  India,  from  the  Himalayas  to  Ceylon. 
The  twilight  passed  swiftly.  The  stars  appeared 
with  a  lustre  peculiar  to  Eastern  skies.     It  was  when 

18 


274  APPENDIX. 

the  moon  came  up  that  the  full  impression  of  the 
architecture  and  of  the  gardens  fell  upon  us  and 
dissipated  all  tendency  to  criticism.  We  wandered 
again  into  the  hall  beneath  the  dome,  and  listened  to 
the  long,  tremulous  echoes  which  make  this  resound- 
ing marble  sky  a  kind  of  acoustic  miracle.  Hindu 
women,  with  tinkling  bangles  on  their  ankles,  walked 
around  the  tomb  of  the  beloved  wife,  and  the  dome 
transformed  the  tinklings  into  a  shower  of  musical 
sounds,  which  were  themselves  reechoed  in  successive 
showers,  until  they  faded  away  into  the  mist  of  silence. 
Above  the  tomb  hung,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  hall, 
an  ostrich  egg,  symbol  of  the  care  which  Providence 
has  of  helpless  human  hopes,  left  in  the  deserts  of 
time,  as  the  ostrich  leaves  her  eggs  in  the  sand,  ap- 
parently forgotten,  but,  at  last,  brought  to  the  birth 
by  the  genial  heat  of  earth  and  sky.  This  symbol  is 
very  common,  even  in  churches  in  the  East,  among 
Oriental  Christians,  and  is  found  nearly  everywhere 
in  Mohammedan  mosques. 

There  lay  on  the  tomb  of  Banoo  Begum  fresh 
'flowers,  and  yet  I  did  not  feel  like  accepting  one  of 
them  when  it  was  offered  to  me,  so  loathsome  is  even 
the  corpse  of  polygamy,  when  seen  near  at  hand.  It 
is  impossible  to  forget  that  the  Taj  was  a  memorial 
not  so  much  of  a  wife  as  of  a  mistress.  Polygamy 
stains  the  historical  associations  of  this  white  and 
holy  architecture,  and  goes  far  toward  justifying  the 
remark  of  Talboys  Wheeler,  one  of  the  historians  of 
India,  that,  in  spite  of  the  innocence  and  purity  of  the 
marbles,  the  soul  of  the  building  is  dead.  This  wo- 
man, who  was  called  the  Light  of  the  World,  may 


THE   TAJ   MAHAL.  275 

have  been  by  nature  one  of  the  noblest ;  but  the 
polygamistic  system  which  degraded  her  and  her 
children  has  left  some  of  the  fairest  regions  of  the 
globe  without  a  single  specimen  of  what  a  human 
home  should  be. 

Lying  down  in  the  twilight  and  gazing  into  the 
sky  above  the  Ganges  plain,  and  meditating  long  on 
the  means  by  which  the  regeneration  of  Asia  is  to  be 
achieved,  I  could  hear  the  voice  of  that  continent  in 
its  better  future  uttering  above  the  tomb  of  Banco 
Begum,  in  the  Taj  Mahal,  its  execration  of  the  ha- 
rem and  its  malison  against  polygamy. 

In  the  silvery  sea  of  light  we  walked  slowly  througli 
the  arches  of  the  western  mosque,  and  looked  east- 
ward, on  the  palpitating,  golden  disk  of  the  nearly 
full  moon,  rising  behind  the  marble  domes.  The 
Jumna  rolled  silently  past.  Orion  blazed  from  the 
mid-heaven.  Akbar,  Shah  Jehan,  Aurungzebe,  were 
the  ghosts  in  the  historic  sky.  The  whole  scene  was 
glorious  exceedingly,  and  attached  us  mysteriously  to 
Asia.  It  was  necessary,  however,  to  confess  that  the 
great  souls  whose  memory  haunts  the  Taj  Mahal  are 
few ;  and  that  its  associations,  if  compared  with  those 
of  the  Parthenon,  are  as  starlight  in  contrast  with 
sunlight.  But  in  sorceries  of  symmetry  in  architec- 
ture the  Taj  has  but  one  superior  on  the  whole  earth, 
and  that  is  the  Parthenon.  It  is  more  than  much  to 
be  second  in  a  list  in  which  the  Parthenon  stands 
first. 


APPENDIX  11. 


IN   THE  HIMALAYAS. 

Coleeidge's  hymn  to  Mont  Blanc  does  not  ex- 
aggerate the  impressiveness  of  that  glorious  peak  of 
Europe  ;  but  some  yet  unwritten  and  nobler  hymn 
is  deserved  by  Kinchinjunga.  Darjeeling  is  the 
Himalayan  Chamounix.  The  overpowering  fact  here 
is,  however,  that  everything  in  the  mountain  scenery 
is  on  a  grander  than  Alpine  scale.  From  the  obser- 
vatory hill  in  Darjeeling,  where  I  am  writing,  more 
than  twelve  peaks  can  be  counted  which  rise  above 
20,000  feet,  and  there  are  none  below  15,000  in  the 
line  between  earth  and  sky. 

'  The  snowy  range  stretches  like  an  army  of  archan- 
gels from  north  to  east  around  an  eighth  of  the  hori- 
zon. The  waterfalls  call  from  the  distant  precipices. 
The  bees  hum  in  the  grass  at  my  feet.  The  air  is 
still,  crystalline,  holy.  The  shadows  of  the  clouds 
chase  each  other  over  the  seas  of  evergreen  oaks,  the 
giddy  chasms,  the  stealthy  glaciers,  the  everlasting 
snows. 

The  chief  peculiarity  of  Darjeeling  is  that  its 
depths  are  almost  as  impressive  as  its  heights.  The 
town  of  white  bungalows  is  built  on  the  crest  of  a 


IN  THE  HIMALAYAS.  277 

wooded  ridge,  some  three  miles  long  and  surrounded 
on  the  east,  north,  and  south  by  gigantic  ravines.  As 
I  look  downward,  the  stupendous  slopes,  covered  with 
tea  -  plantations,  pastures,  and  forests,  descend,  in 
three  directions,  some  six  thousand  feet  in  eleven 
miles.  From  the  lowest  point  the  eye  can  reach  in 
the  valley  of  the  Runjeet  River,  below  me,  to  the 
crest  of  Kinchin junga,  the  distance,  in  a  vertical  line, 
is  not  less  than  five  miles. 

This  scenery  is  probably  unmatched  on  the'  earth, 
though  not  on  the  moon,  in  which  the  telescopic 
mountains,  many  miles  high  and  rolled  above  our 
heads  daily,  are  strangely  unappreciated,  and  yet  are 
not  to  be  forgotten  face  to  face  with  Everest  and 
Kinchinjunga. 

The  Himalayas  dazzle  the  Swiss  Alps  —  not  into 
nothingness,  nor  out  of  sight,  nor  into  tameness ;  but 
into  a  rank  of  incontestable  inferiority. 

The  Alps,  however,  have  more  variety  and  beauty, 
although  less  sublimity  and  grandeur,  than  the  Him- 
alayas. In  the  outlook  from  Darjeeling,  while  the 
majesties  are  unapproachable  by  those  of  any  other 
known  terrestrial  view,  one  misses  keenly  the  lakes 
which  give  such  a  charm  to  the  prospect  from  the 
Rhigi,  the  near  glaciers  and  avalanches  of  Chamou- 
nix,  and  the  half-mile  waterfalls,  the  gigantic  trees, 
and  the  astounding  precipices  of  the  Yosemite  Val- 
ley. 

Mont  Blanc  is  only  15,810  feet  high,  while  Kin- 
chinjunga is  28,000  and  Everest  29,000.  Kinchin- 
junga, forty  miles  distant  from  Darjeeling,  appears 
to  be,  as  it  is,  more  than  twice  as  high  as  Mont  Blanc, 


278  APPENDIX. 

as  seen  from  Geneva.  Mont  Blanc,  as  viewed  from 
Chamounix,  is  seen  from  a  high  mountain  valley ;  but 
Kinchin junga,  as  viewed  from  the  Runjeet,  lifts  itself 
more  than  25,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  observer 
into  the  clouds.  As  seen  from  Senchal,  six  miles 
from  Darjeeling,  Everest,  although  it  is  the  highest 
known  summit  in  the  world,  is  less  impressive  than 
Kinchinjunga,  for  it  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
away ;  but  its  majesty,  even  in  the  distant  view,  ex- 
ceeds that  of  Monte  Rosa  and  Mont  Blanc,  as  seen 
from  the  towers  of  the  Cathedral  of  Milan. 

"  I  climbed  the  roofs  at  break  of  day, 
Sun-smitten  Alps  before  me  lay. 

I  stood  among  the  silent  statues 
And  statued  pinnacles  mute  as  they. 
How  faintly  flushed,  how  phantom  fair, 
Was  Monte  Rosa,  hanging  there, 

A  thousand  shadowy  penciled  valleys 
And  snowy  dells  in  a  golden  air," 

Tennyson  :  The  Daisy. 

Everest  is  properly  described  by  no  one  word  except 
its  native  name,  Deodhunga  —  Giod-height. 
,  Darjeeling  lies  only  some  four  hundred  miles  north 
of  Calcutta  and  has  little  snow;  but  its  weather  is 
often  icy  on  days  when  the  tropical  Hooghly  is  en- 
swathed  in  a  steaming  vapor-bath.  It  is  reached  by 
a  half-day's  railway  journey,  across  flat,  palm-clad, 
deltaic  Bengal,  to  the  Ganges ;  a  ferry  over  that 
broad,  yellow  stream,  which  greatly  resembles  the 
Missouri  in  the  turbidness  and  waywardness  of  its 
currents,  and  especially  in  the  blown  sand  of  the  flats 
in  the  bare  portions  of  its  bed  at  low  water ;  a  night's 
journey  by  narrow-gauge  railway  to  Siligori,  on  the 


IN   THE   HIMALAYAS.  279 

outer  edge  of  the  marshes  at  the  foot  of  the  hills  ; 
and  then  a  day's  travel  by  steam  tramway  across  the 
famous  jungles  in  these  marshes  and  along  the  grand 
ascent  through  Teendaria  and  Kurseong. 

In  moving  up  the  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  from 
the  Ganges  Plain  to  Darjeeling,  the  fascinated  trav- 
eler has  opportunity  to  study  the  vigorous  tropical 
vegetation  at  the  base  of  the  hills ;  the  gradual 
change  of  this  into  the  oak  forests  of  the  middle 
heights ;  the  tree  ferns  succeeding  the  palms  and  the 
bamboos ;  the  mosses  festooning  both  the  rocks  and 
the  trees ;  the  trickling  rills  in  the  cool  ravines  ;  the 
dashing  mountain  brooks,  with  their  crystal  pools ; 
the  trailing  plants  choking  many  of  the  kings  of  the 
forest ;  the  far,  grand  outlook  over  the  gray,  dusty 
plains,  and  the  gleaming,  tawny  rivers,  on  their  way 
through  the  parched  lowlands  ;  the  numberless  curves 
of  the  iron  road  ;  the  audacious  grades  up  which  the 
engine  climbs,  like  a  thing  of  life  ;  the  occasional 
villages  of  bamboo  huts ;  the  sturdy  Nepaulese,  with 
their  broad  knives  in  their  girdles  ;  the  savage  Bhoo- 
tans  and  Thibetans,  with  many  of  the  Mongolian 
traits  in  their  features;  the  tea  -  plantations,  with 
their  capacious  bungalows  for  the  masters  and  rows 
of  huts  for  the  coolies  ;  the  small,  gray,  patient  oxen  ; 
the  rather  undersized  but  vigorous  Himalayan  po- 
nies ;  the  prayer  flags  above  Buddhist  villages ;  the 
slight  falls  of  snow  ;  and,  at  last,  the  bursting  into 
view  of  Kinchinjunga  itself  and  its  companion  giants. 
At  from  12,000  to  10,000  feet  above  the  sea  the 
southern  slope  of  the  Himalayas  produces  fir-trees, 
dwarf  rhododendrons,  aromatic  rhododendrons,  juni- 


280  APPENDIX. 

per,  boUy,  currants,  cherries,  pears,  lilacs,  primroses, 

and  violets;  at  from  10,000  to  8,000  and  lower,  oak, 
chestnut,  olives,  figs,  laurel,  maple,  barberry,  lily  of 
the  valley,  and  white  rose ;  at  from  8,000  to  6,000 
and  lower,  the  magnolia,  peach,  strawberry,  and 
most  of  the  flowers  of  Germany  and  England;  at 
from  6,000  to  4,000  and  lower,  tree  ferns,  plantains, 
walnuts,  and  birches ;  at  from  4,000  to  3,000,  rice, 
barley,  buckwheat,  maize,  yam,  cummin,  mint,  and 
rue ;  at  from  1,000  to  the  plains,  figs,  dates,  magno- 
lias, lotus-trees,  ginger,  orchids,  mangoes,  twelve  kinds 
of  bamboos,  and  many  varieties  of  palms.  In  spite, 
however,  of  the  number  and  interest  of  the  objects 
in  view,  the  approach  to  Darjeeling  does  not  equal 
that  to  the  Yosemite  Valley  by  the  Mariposa  or  the 
Calaveras  grove  of  mammoth  trees  ;  nor  that  to  Cha- 
mounix  from  Geneva  by  the  way  of  Vevay,  the 
Rhone  Valley,  and  the  Tete-noir  Pass. 

In  Darjeeling  there  are  some  500  British  residents, 
besides  pupils  in  an  important  school,  which  prepares 
young  men  for  the  entrance  examination  for  the  Cal- 
cutta University.  The  whole  population  of  the  place 
is  upward  of  90,000  ;  but  so  scattered  are  the  native 
quarters,  and  so  exclusively  do  the  English  occupy 
the  summit  of  the  ridge,  that  the  main  portion  of  the 
place  is  very  British  in  appearance.  Each  house  is 
surrounded  by  well-kept  grounds  ;  fine,  broad  roads 
lead  along  the  slopes;  there  is  abundant  greenness 
and  not  a  little  attention  to  landscape  gardening.  A 
Union  chapel  and  an  English  church  are  among  the 
principal  buildings.  The  number  of  grounds  for 
playing  lawn-tennis  and  other  EngHsh   games  indi- 


IN   THE   HIMALAYAS.  281 

cate  the  tastes  of  the  leisured  and  wealthy  proprie- 
tors of  the  tea-plantations,  which  abound  on  all  the 
lower  slopes. 

The  Buddhist  temple  of  the  town  is,  on  the  whole, 
a  repulsive  place;  architecturally  ugly  and  morally 
without  dignity.  We  saw  in  it  a  curious  Buddhist 
library,  of  perhaps  150  volumes  ;  a  dozen  or  so  of  un- 
tidy monks  and  a  few  savage-looking  worshipers.  In 
the  vestibule  stood  a  praying  machine,  consisting  of 
a  cylinder,  about  six  feet  high,  placed  upright,  and 
filled  with  something  like  a  mile's  length  of  cloth, 
covered  with  printed  prayers.  This  is  whirled  by  a 
crank  underneath  it,  and  every  revolution  is  equiva- 
lent to  the  utterance  of  all  the  prayers  within  the 
cylinder.  A  dozen  or  more  smaller  cylinders  were 
in  the  same  vestibule  ;  and  yet  smaller  ones,  of  which 
I  purchased  a  specimen,  were  in  motion  in  the  hands 
of  the  priests,  as  they  walked  about  the  temple. 
Prayer  flags,  as  seen  at  Darjeeling,  are  strips  of 
white  cotton,  about  a  yard  in  breadth  and  from  ten 
to  twenty  feet  long,  attached  lengthwise  to  poles  and 
covered  with  printed  prayers.  Every  motion  of  the 
flag  in  the  wind  is  supposed  to  be  of  the  same  devo- 
tional value  as  would  be  the  utterance  of  the  prayers 
inscribed  on  the  cloth. 

The  Himalayas  are  fitly  called  the  Abode  of  Snow. 
The  regions  around  the  South  Pole  of  the  earth  de- 
serve this  name  by  preeminence.  It  is  affirmed  on 
high  authority  that  a  possible  accumulation  of  snow 
at  the  South  Pole,  in  connection  with  certain  con- 
junctions of  the  planets,  might  cause  an  instantane- 
ous change  in  the  position  of  the  axis  of  rotation  of 


282  APPENDIX. 

the  earth.  The  result  would  be  a  deluge,  and  the 
effacement  of  the  present  continents  and  the  forma- 
tion of  new  ones;  but  it  is  understood  by  men  of 
science  that  even  in  such  an  upheaval  of  the  great 
deep,  the  tops  of  the  Himalayas  would  remain  above 
the  waves,  and  thus  form  a  beginning  for  a  new  ca- 
reer of  the  life  of  plants  and  animals  and  men  in  a 
renovated  world. 


APPENDIX  III. 


THE   DEATH    OF  KESHUB   CHUNDER  SEN. 

A  HEROIC  soldier  of  religious  reform,  a  saint,  a 
seei-,  has  passed  into  the  world  into  which  all  men 
haste. 

No  Asiatic  interested  me  as  much  as  did  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen.  I  came  near  enough  to  him  to  under- 
stand something  of  his  nature,  his  environment,  his 
struggles,  his  triumphs,  his  defeats,  his  hopes.  On 
no  one  born  in  India  did  I  build  more  expectation 
than  on  him  as  to  the  future  of  reform  among  the 
educated  circles  of  Hindustan.  How  noble  he  was ; 
how  serious ;  how  worthy  of  spiritual  leadership  ;  how 
intense ;  how  eloquent ;  how  prayerful !  I  saw  in  his 
soul  the  Oriental  type,  and  was  taught  much  by  it, 
and  had  hoped  to  be  taught  more.  The  news  from 
the  Ganges  that  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  is  dead  over- 
whelms me  with  a  more  profound  sense  of  personal 
bereavement  than  I  can  now  remember  to  have  felt 
before  at  the  departure  of  any  public  man.  A  most 
interesting  and  noble  career  ended  at  an  age  of  less 
than  forty-six.  Oh,  my  brother,  my  brother,  how 
lonely  the  world  seems  without  thee  ! 

Rammohun   Roy  never  ceased  to  be  a  Brahmin. 


284  APPENDIX. 

When  he  died  at  Bristol,  England,  in  1833,  the  sa- 
cred Brahminical  thread  was  found  around  his  shoul- 
ders. He  was  a  vacillating  adherent  of  a  conservative 
form  of  Unitarianism.  He  was  consistent  in  his  op- 
position to  idolatry ;  but  he  never  efficiently  attacked 
caste.  He  instituted  an  agitation  which  led  to  the 
abolition  of  the  burning  of  Hindu  widows  ;  but  he 
did  not  permit  their  remarriage.  He  was  a  writer  of 
much  logical  power,  but  inspired  his  associates  with 
little  spiritual  fervor. 

Debendranath  Tagore,  who  reorganized  the  Brahmo 
Somaj,  at  Calcutta,  after  Rammohun  Roy's  death, 
was  a  man  of  devout  and  lofty  soul ;  but  he  did  not 
wholly  break  with  Hindu  customs  as  to  caste. 

It  is  to  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  that  India  owes  the 
most  thorough  opposition  any  of  her  native  reform- 
ers has  yet  made  to  caste,  child-marriages,  and  en- 
forced widowhood,  as  well  as  to  idolatry,  polytheism, 
pantheism,  and  materialism  in  all  their  forms.  When 
yet  comparatively  young  and  acting  in  closest  fellow- 
ship with  Debendranath  Tagore,  he  demanded  that 
only  those  who  had  cast  away  the  Brahminical  sacred 
thread  should  be  allowed  to  act  as  preachers  in  the 
Brahmo  Somaj.  This  reform  was  not  granted  to 
him  ;  and,  therefore,  with  some  of  the  most  earnest 
and  progressive  of  the  Brahmos,  he  seceded  from  the 
original  society,  and  founded  in  1860  a  new  organiza- 
tion, which  cut  the  hist  bonds  that  bound  it  to  Brah- 
minism.  It  was  under  his  leadership  that  the  Indian 
Reform  Association  was  organized,  after  his  return 
from  his  visit  to  England  in  1870.  He  stimulated 
discussions  as  to  tlie  evils  of  child-marriages.     He 


DEATH   OF   KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN.  285 

broke  with  all  the  rules  of  orthodox  Hindu  society 
in  favoring  the  remarriage  of  widows  and  marriages 
between  persons  of  different  castes.  In  the  face  of 
the  bitterest  opposition  he  secured  from  the  govern- 
ment of  India  a  law  legalizing  such  marriages.  Only 
those  who  know  how  the  topic  of  marriage  is  inter- 
woven with  the  whole  net-work  of  legal  and  social 
usages  in  India  will  appreciate  the  courage  and  the 
wisdom  of  this  effort  to  engraft  Occidental  and 
Christian  ideas  as  to  the  home  and  the  family  upon 
Oriental  customs  having  the  highest  sanction  of  age 
and  Brahminical  approval. 

But  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  was  an  orator  as  well  as 
a  reformer.  In  his  earliest  manhood  it  was  the  force 
and  beauty  of  his  public  speech  which  first  gave  him 
influence  as  a  leader.  Oriental  in  his  rhetoric,  and 
too  little  given  to  theological  study,  he  sometimes  of- 
fended severe  Occidental  tastes  by  both  his  manner 
and  matter  ;  but,  as  he  grew  more  mature,  he  was  be- 
coming more  balanced  and  massive.  His  best  pro- 
ductions have  an  almost  classical  grace  and  vigor. 
They  are  likely  to  have  a  long  life  among  Brahmos 
of  the  progressive  type  ;  for  they  breathe  the  loftiest 
spirit  of  reform,  of  patriotism,  and  of  religious  aspi- 
ration. Once  a  year,  in  the  latter  portion  of  his  life, 
he  was  accustomed  to  proclaim  the  principles  of  his 
society  in  an  elaborate  oration  in  the  Town  Hall  at 
Calcutta.  That  great  audience-room,  holding  from 
three  to  four  thousand,  was  usually  crowded  when  he 
appeared  in  it. 

Keshub  Chunder  Sen  was  not  a  reformer  and  ora- 
tor merely  ;  he  was  also  a  religious  seer.     When  his 


286  APPENDIX. 

influence  over  his  followers  is  closely  analyzed,  it  will 
be  found  that  his  deep  communion  with  the  unseen 
world  was  the  chief  source  of  the  authority  he  was 
allowed  to  exercise  among  his  friends  and  disciples. 
At  a  time  when  his  supporters  were  becoming  dis- 
heartened and  disunited,  he  instituted  daily  devo- 
tional exercises  for  them  in  his  own  house.  He  led 
these  services  with  such  a  spirit  that  schism  was  ef- 
fectually overcome.  Sometimes  the  exercises  were 
three  and  five  hours  in  duration.  Any  religious  doc- 
trine which  was  habitually  impressed  upon  the  minds 
of  the  worshipers  in  these  assemblies  for  prayer  was 
regarded  as  infallibly  revealed  to  them  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  This  startling  claim  was  the  centre  of  the 
religious  philosophy  of  the  Progressive  Brahmo  So- 
maj,  as  led  by  Keshub  Chunder  Sen.  He  held,  in- 
deed, that  the  spirit  of  the  prophets  must  be  subject 
to  the  prophets  ;  but  he  regarded  inspiration  as  quite 
possible  in  our  day.  He  always  spoke  with  reverence 
of  all  the  sacred  books  of  the  world,  and  with  the  ut- 
most reverence  of  the  Psalms,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures.  The  crown  of  India,  he 
once  said,  "  does  not  belong  to  Victoria.  It  belongs 
to  the  Founder  of  Christianity."  He  went  so  far  as 
to  assert  in  words  "  the  coeternity  of  the  Son  with 
the  Father,"  and  to  declare  that  the  more  men  honor 
the  Son,  the  more  they  honor  the  Father.  But,  by 
the  preexistence  of  Christ,  he  meant  only  the  ex- 
istence from  eternity  in  the  Divine  Mind  of  a  plan 
to  bring  Christ  into  the  world.  He  seems  not  to  have 
grasped  completely  the  truth  of  Christ's  Deity  as  re- 
vealed in  the  Gospels  ;  but  had  his  devotional  moods 


DEATH   OF   KESHUB   CHUNDER   SEN.  287 

led  him  to  feel  as  deeply  the  need  of  an  atonement 
as  they  did  that  of  the  new  birth,  he  would  probably 
have  found  God  in  Christ,  both  a  Saviour  and  Lord. 
He  emphasized  in  every  way  the  truths  of  reason  and 
Scripture  concerning  the  Holy  Spirit.  His  religion 
he  called  Eclectic  Theism,  or  the  New  Dispensation 
of  the  Spirit.  It  was  undoubtedly  his  most  sacred 
conviction  that  he  was  himself  in  some  sense  inspired 
as  a  teacher  of  this  New  Dispensation. 

Who  will  take  the  place  of  the  reformer,  the  ora- 
tor, and  the  seer  ?  His  chief  coadjutor  for  years  has 
been  Babu  Mozumdar,  a  remarkable  man  as  re- 
former and  orator  and  religious  teacher,  but  not 
likely  to  command,  or  to  desire,  that  personal  allegi- 
ance which  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  secured.  My  fear 
is  that  the  most  progressive  friends  of  Keshub  Chun- 
der Sen  may  push  to  wild  extremes  his  doctrine  of 
inspiration  and  reverence  him  as  their  guide  yet,  al- 
though his  soul  has  passed  into  the  skies.  He  may 
be  more  influential  after  his  death  than  he  was  be- 
fore. His  words  may  now  be  treasured  as  those  of 
an  inspired  prophet,  and  give  direction  to  the  future 
movements  of  that  portion  of  the  theistic  societies  of 
India  which  he  led.  It  has  been  frequently  predicted 
—  and  even  by  Babu  Mozumdar  himself  —  that  the 
death  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  would  only  add  to  the 
authority  of  the  New  Dispensation. 

Babu  Mozumdar,  who  has  left  delightful  memo- 
ries of  himself  in  England  and  America,  on  his  tour 
of  the  world,  is  now,  perhaps,  in  Japan ;  or,  possibly, 
on  the  long  voyage  thence  to  India.  Probably  the 
first  news  he  will  receive  on  setting  his  feet  once 


288  APPENDIX. 

more  on  his  native  shores  will  be  that  of  the  death  of 
his  great  leader.  There  are  less  than  two  hundred 
Brahmo  societies  in  India,  and  not  all  of  them  are 
progressive  enough  to  sympathize  with  Keshub  Chun- 
der  Sen.  The  numbers  represented  by  Hindu  The- 
ism are  small ;  but  it  has  an  important  leavening  in- 
fluence in  the  educated  circles  of  a  land  containing 
more  people  than  any  Caesar  ever  governed. 

The  progressive  Brahmos  are  in  the  vestibule  of 
Christianity,  with  their  faces  turned  toward  the  in- 
ner doors  ;  while  radical  Unitarians  in  the  Occident 
are  in  the  same  vestibule,  but  often  with  their  faces 
turned  toward  the  outer  doors.  The  Brahmo  Creed 
is  not  yet  fixed.  It  is  likely  to  crystallize  much  about 
the  final  opinions  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen.  Would 
that  Providence  had  led  him  to  a  deeper  knowledge 
of  Christianity  before  snatching  him  from  this  world  ! 
Mere  Theism,  in  the  form  in  which  he  held  it,  can- 
not save  India.     Christianity  can. 

Boston,  Mass. 


APPENDIX  IV. 


TWENTY-FOUR  QUESTIONS  ON  NEW  JAPAN. 

Answered  in  writing  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Verbeck,  of  Tokio  ;  by  the  Rev. 

Mr.  Ibuka  and  other  Japanese,  of  Tokio  ;  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Greene 

and  Professor  Gordon,  of  I^oto;  and  by  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Neesima 

and  other  Japanese,  of  Kioto. 

[Oral  answers  were  given  by  a  missionary  meeting  at  Yokohama, 
Dr.  Hepburn  presiding ;  by  a  missionary  meeting  at  Tokio,  Dr.  Ver- 
beck presiding  ;  and  by  a  missionary  meeting  at  Kobe,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Gulick  presiding,  to  the  following  written  questions  by  JVIr.  Cook.] 

THE  QUESTIONS. 

1.  What  are  the  chief  objections  made  by  edu- 
cated natives  of  Japan  to  the  acceptance  of  Christian- 
ity ? 

2.  What  are  the  chief  hindrances  to  its  acceptance 
by  the  uneducated  among  the  Japanese  ? 

3.  What  are  the  most  mischievous  forms  of  inher- 
ited misbelief  among  the  Japanese  ? 

4.  What  are  the  most  mischievous  forms  of  im- 
ported unbelief  ? 

5.  What  is  the  position  of  the  Japanese  newspaper 
press,  both  native  and  English,  in  relation  to  Chris- 
tianity ? 

6.  What  has  been  the  religious  and  philosophical 

19 


290  APPENDIX. 

attitude  of  the  foreign  teachers  who  have  been  in- 
vited to  Japan  to  give  instruction  in  the  modern  sci- 
ences ? 

7.  What  is  the  average  religious  effect  of  a  liberal 
education  obtained  in  the  highest  seats  of  learning 
now  accessible  in  Japan  ? 

8.  What  books,  opposed  to  evangelical  Christianity 
and  a  theistic  philosophy,  are  the  most  read  by  the 
educated  Japanese  ? 

9.  What  books  defending  Christianity  are  the  most 
useful  in  Japan  ? 

10.  By  what  aspects  of  Christian  truth  are  the 
most  conversions  made? 

11.  What  is  the  effect  of  liberal  education  in  Amer- 
ica or  Europe  upon  the  religious  opinions  of  Japanese 
students  ? 

12.  What  policy  do  the  foreign  residents  of  Japan 
recommend  on  the  subject  of  exterritoriality  ? 

13.  How  far  are  Japanese  native  churches  at  pres- 
ent self-supporting  ? 

,  14.  Is  it  advisable  to  encourage  native  Christians 
in  Japan  to  pay  a  tenth  of  their  income  to  their 
churches,  for  the  support  of  the  Gospel  ? 

15.  What  systems  of  self-help  have  been  found  the 
most  efficient  among  the  native  churches  of  Japan  ? 

16.  What  is  the  attitude  of  the  Japanese  govern- 
ment toward  active  Evangelical  Protestantism  in  na- 
tive churches  ? 

17.  What  are  the  present  prospects  of  the  Shinto, 
the  Buddhist,  and  the  Confucian  creeds  in  Japan  ? 

18.  What  are  the^  condition  and  influence  of  the 
Greek  Church  and  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  Japan  ? 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW   JAPAN.  291 

19.  What  is  being  done  for  the  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  woman  in  Japan,  especially  for  female 
education,  and  what  more  ought  to  be  done? 

20.  What  hindrances  does  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Japan  experience  on  account  of  merely 
nominal  Christianity,  or  infidelity,  or  immorality  in 
the  lives  of  European  and  American  residents  ? 

21.  How  far  should  the  study  of  the  English  lan- 
guage be  pushed  in  connection  with  mission  schools  ? 

22.  How  far  should  native  Japanese  converts  be 
expected  and  taught  to  adopt  Western  manners  and 
customs  in  social  intercourse,  dress,  and  style  of  liv- 
ing, when  they  adopt  Christianity  ? 

23.  What  criticisms,  whether  just  or  unjust,  are 
made  by  the  most  intelligent  and  devout  among  Jap- 
anese Christians  on  the  methods  of  the  foreign  mis- 
sionaries now  in  Japan  ? 

24.  What  mistakes  do  the  churches  and  average 
public  sentiment  in  the  West  make  as  to  the  religious 
and  political  condition  of  Japan  ? 

ANSWERS   BY  DR.   VERBECK,   TOKIO. 

1.  The  religious  sentiments  of  educated  natives 
are  and  for  many  generations  (feudal  system)  have 
been  very  imperfectly  developed.  A  large  majority 
of  them  probably  regard  Christianity  with  indiffer- 
ence ;  but  as  Confucianists  they  look  upon  all  religion 
and  everything  related  to  it  as  good  enough  for  and 
perhaps  beneficial  to  the  common  people,  but  with 
more  or  less  of  contempt  as  far  as  they  themselves 
are  concerned.  The  educated  Japanese  (as  well  as 
the  uneducated)  is  very  apt  to  attend  to  and  accept 


292  APPENDIX. 

whatever  is  in  vogue  for  the  time  being,  or  whatever 
may  improve  his  social  status.  But  what  is  in  vogue 
in  Japan  at  the  present  time  is  not  religion,  but  the 
all-absorbing  topic  of  politics.  Hence  it  is  that,  when 
Christianity  is  discussed  by  members  of  the  class  in 
question,  it  usually  is  from  a  political  point  of  view. 
As  regards  social,  and  especially  official,  standing,  an 
educated  native's  public  profession  of  Christianity 
might  and  probably  would  be  more  or  less  prejudicial 
to  it.  When  the  Christian  Church  in  Japan  will  have 
attained  a  certain  amount  of  prestige  (and  by  that 
time  Christian  knowledge  will  be  widely  diffused 
among  all  classes),  the  educated  Japanese  will  not  be 
disinclined  to  accept  Christianity,  if  otherwise  pre- 
pared for  it. 

2.  Faithful  or  superstitious  attachment  to  Bud- 
dhism and  ignorance  and  sensuality. 

3.  Outside  of  Buddhistic  superstitions  and  some 
popular  delusions,  —  ghosts,  foxes,  etc.,  —  the  com- 
mon Japanese,  especially  as  compared  with  the  Chi- 
nese, seem  to  be  remarkably  free  from  ineradicable 
superstitions  and  prejudices.  This  is  shown  by  the 
advanced  age  of  many  of  our  best  Christians,  and  by 
the  general  readiness  of  this  people  to  adopt  foreign 
things  (medicines,  machines,  processes,  laws,  man- 
ners, and  even  ideas). 

4.  Materialism,  and  to  some  extent  Atheism. 

5.  The  native  papers  are  wrapped  up  in  rather 
wild  politics.  Much  of  what  was  said  under  1  ap- 
plies to  them.  Articles  "very  favorable  to  Christian- 
ity have  from  time  to  time  appeared,  and  also  very 
bitter  ones.     Christianity  is  chiefly  discussed  by  them 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEAV   JAPAN.  293 

from  a  political  stand-point,  and  tben  usually  with  a 
hostile  tendency.  One  of  the  English  papers  (there 
are  three)  always  speaks  with  respect  of  Christian- 
ity, and  generally  of  missions  and  missionaries. 

6.  A  number  of  them  have  been  and  are  earnest 
Christian  men.  Some  skeptic  (Morse)  Japanese  stu- 
dents may  listen  with  pleasure  to  a  skeptical  foreign- 
er's teachings,  and  may  follow  him;  but  I  doubt  if 
they  have  any  real  respect  for  him. 

7.  It  is  naught  at  present ;  but  this  want,  at  least 
as  far  as  the  utter  absence  of  moral  teaching  is  con- 
cerned (especially  in  view  of  the  general  decay  of  the 
native  religions),  is  felt  by  influential  members  of  the 
educational  department,  so  much  so  that  various  ways 
have  been  proposed  and  discussed  by  them  for  the  re- 
moval of  this  evil  (among  others  an  eclectic  system). 

8.  Mill,  Spencer,  Buckle,  the  volumes  of  the  disap- 
pointing '^  International  Series,"  etc. 

9.  Martin's  "  Evidences  of  Christianity  "  has  been 
and  is  one  of  the  most  widely  read  and  useful  books 
of  this  kind.  It  is  in  Chinese,  with  pointing  to 
make  it  intelligible  to  a  tolerably  educated  Japanese. 
The  Scriptures  are  extensively  sold. 

10.  This  reply  is  rather  venturesome  ;  but,  stating 
it  roughly,  I  should  say  that  two  fifths  are  led  toward 
Christianity  by  the  apparent  influence  of  its  redemp- 
tive aspect ;  two  fifths  by  its  moral  (ethical)  aspect ; 
and  one  fifth  by  its  civilizing  aspect.  The  moral  as- 
pect of  Christianity  —  such  as  that  e.  g.  set  forth  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount — always  impresses  the 
Japanese  when  it  is  brought  to  their  attention  (but 
it   is   less  effective   than   the  redemptive  aspect   of 


294  APPENDIX. 

Christianity  in  really  leading  a  man  to  a  sincere  ac- 
ceptance of  Christ  ;  it  is  more  apt  to  end  in  mere  ad- 
miration from  without). 

11.  Not  good,  with  a  few  happy  exceptions  (Nee- 
sima). 

12.  There  is  no  emigration,  properly  so  called,  of 
Japanese  to  foreign  parts.  As  a  general  thing  a  Jap- 
anese when  at  Rome  will  do  as  the  Romans  do.  He 
is  easily  influenced  by  his  surroundings  ;  he  is  a  crea- 
ture of  policy.  In  America  he  may,  to  all  appear- 
ances, be  a  Christian.  When  he  comes  home  again 
he  is  no  more  a  Christian. 

13.  See  statistics. 

14.  I  should  not  favor  it  unless  it  took  its  rise  spon- 
taneously in  individual  churches.  By  urging  it  as  a 
general  rule  I  should  fear  I  might  lay  the  foundation 
for  a  superstition  in  connection  with  church  contribu- 
tions. The  voluntariness  of  the  gifts  might  also  be 
impaired. 

15.  No  personal  experience. 

16.  Indifferent,  if  not  favorable.  As  long  as  native 
Christians  lead  honest  and  quiet  lives,  the  govern- 
ment does  not  interfere  in  the  least.  (The  burial 
question  is  a  Buddhistic  rather  than  a  political  ques- 
tion.) 

17.  Not  very  bright,  I  should  say.  In  spite  of 
considerable  efforts  to  uphold  them,  they  are  declin- 
ing. 

18.  Roman  Catholicism  spreads  widely  among  the 
lower  classes,  but  the  elements  gathered  in  are  weak. 
The  Romanists  have  very  little  access  to  the  educated 
classes. 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW   JAPAN.  295 

19.  A  good  deal  is  done  in  this  department  both 
by  the  government  secularly  and  the  mission  schools 
secularly  and  religiously,  and  all  that  seems  to  be 
wanting  is  a  wider  extension  of  the  methods  now  in 
operation.  The  importance  of  this  department  can- 
not be  overstated. 

20.  Outside  of  the  serving  classes  and  those  coming 
in  direct  relations  with  immoral  foreign  residents,  in 
the  way  of  trade  or  otherwise,  I  doubt  if  the  hin- 
drances from  this  source  are  as  great  as  might  be 
supposed.  I  think  many  of  the  natives  have  a  clear 
idea  that  immoral  foreigners  are  violating  the  doc- 
trines and  conventionalities  of  their  own  civilized 
countries. 

21.  The  intelligence  of  the  people  is  often  under- 
rated, even  by  those  who  reside  here,  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  its  not  always  moving  in  the  same  lines 
which  we  foreigners  have  been  trained  in. 

The  want  of  truthfulness  is  justly  ascribed  to  the 
Japanese  ;  it  is  a  deep  -  seated  characteristic.  The 
mere  number  of  baptized  Christians  and  church  mem- 
bers is  not  a  sufiicient  index  of  the  attitude  of  the 
people  at  large  toward  Christianity ;  it  is  an  index  of 
that  attitude  toward  Christianity,  as  it  depends  on 
foreign  missions  in  this  country.  As  regards  the  po- 
litical condition,  foreigners  at  home  have  no  idea  of 
the  vastness  of  the  spread  of  the  purest  radicalism 
among  all  classes  of  this  people. 

1.  I  have  not  referred  to  the  anti-foreign  feeling 
prevalent  among  the  people.  It  is  so  strong  that 
many  measure  a  man's  patriotism  by  the  degree  of 
this  feeling.      I  am  convinced  that  it  arises  on  the 


296  APPENDIX. 

one  hand,  no  doubt,  from  Buddhistic  and  Shintoistic 
jealousy  of  Christianity;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
chiefly  (nine  tenths)  from  political  jealousy  (exterri- 
toriality). If  the  exterritorial  rights  claimed  and 
possessed  by  foreigners  in  Japan  were  abolished  or 
given  up,  one  would  hear  comparatively  little  of  ha- 
tred of  foreigners.  As  the  Japanese  are  constituted, 
few  things  are  more  calculated  to  offend  and  hurt 
their  vanity  than  exterritoriality. 

2.  The  money  question,  as  it  continually  arises  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  the  foreign  missions  in 
this  country,  I  have  also  not  touched  upon  in  the 
above  replies.  It  is  a  serious  problem,  and  I  see  no 
way  open  for  a  solution  which  would  be  sure  of  pro- 
ducing satisfactory  results,  and  especially  no  way  that 
would  be  acceptable  to  either  the  missionaries  in  the 
field  or  their  constituents  at  home.  One  thing  seems 
to  me  clear  :  if  a  system  were  used  according  to  which 
not  a  dollar  of  foreign  money  passed  out  of  the  hand 
of  the  missionary  into  that  of  the  native  convert  (lay 
or  ordained),  a  great  part  of  native  prejudice  and  ob- 
jection to  Christianity  would  be  removed. 

3.  A  large  share  of  native  impatience  under  foreign 
control  or  oversight  over  native  churches  would  be  re- 
moved, together  with  the  removal  of  exterritoriality. 

ANSWERS    BY    THE    REV.    MR.    IBUKA    AND    OTHER 
JAPANESE    OF    TOKIO. 

1.  The  chief  objections  made  by  the  educated  Jap- 
anese to  the  acceptance  of  Christianity  are  six,  viz. :  — 

(a.)  Supernatural  element  in  Christianity;  e.  g, 
miracles  and  divinity  of  Christ. 


QUESTIONS   ON  NEW  JAPAN.  297 

(5.)  The  opposition  of  Christianity  to  ancestral 
worship,  especially  among  those  who  have  received 
Chinese  education. 

(tf.)  The  doctrine  of  future  existence,  which  they 
consider  as  a  pious  fraud. 

((i.)  Its  supposed  disadvantage  to  the  growth  of 
national  spirit  and  to  the  independence  of  the  coun- 
try. 

(e.)  Alleged  conflicts  between  Christianity  and 
modern  science. 

(/.)  Supposed  hindrances  of  Christianity  to  the 
progress  of  civilization. 

2.  Among  the  hindrances  to  its  acceptance  by  the 
uneducated  the  following  may  be  mentioned  :  — 

(a.)  The  fear  of  offending  the  government  and 
their  friends. 

(5.)  The  observance  of  the  Sabbath. 

(c.)  Ancestral  worship. 

(f?.)  Simplicity  of  Christian  worship. 

(e.)  Dislike  of  change. 

(/.)  Strictness  of  Christian  morals. 

(^.)  Sacrifices  and  obstacles  inherent  to  Christian 
profession. 

3.  The  rationalistic  tendency  of  Confucianism 
among  the  educated  class. 

4.  Western  Atheism,  Materialism,  Secularism,  Ag- 
nosticism, and  gross  forms  of  Utilitarianism.  (Renan, 
Strauss,  and  other  critics  of  more  refined  form  on 
Christianity  are  not  yet  extensively  known.) 

5.  The  native  newspapers  of  Tokio  are  mostly 
indifferent  to  Christianity,  excepting  a  few  which 
are  ready  to  attack  it  whenever  they  have   oppor- 


298  APPENDIX. 

tiinity.     Buddhists   and   Shintoists   have   organs    of 
their  own. 

6.  At  present  most  of  those  instructors  who  have 
greatest  influence  over  the  youthful  minds  are  against 
Christianity. 

7.  Unfavorable  to  Christianity. 

8.  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization  "  (translated)  ; 
John  S.  Mill's  works  (his  "Essays  on  Religion  and 
Utilitarianism,"  translated)  ;  "  Huxley  on  Proto- 
plasm "  (translated) ;  Draper's  "  Conflicts  between 
Science  and  Religion,"  and  "  The  Intellectual  De- 
velopment in  Europe ;  "  Thomas  Paine's  "  Age  of  Rea- 
son "  (translated)  ;  IngersoU's  "  Lectures  on  Gods  " 
(translated)  ;  Herbert  Spencer's  works,  Bain's  works. 

9.  Dr.  Martin's  "  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  and 
Dr.  Williamson's  "  Natural  Theology,"  in  Chinese. 

10.  («.)  The  great  comfort  which  Christianity 
gives  to  the  afflicted. 

(6.)   Excellency  of  Christian  morals. 

11.  It  is  not  uncommon  that  our  students  who 
went  to  America  return  converted ;  but  we  have  not 
known  or  heard  of  a  single  instance  of  the  student 
who  was  converted  in  France,  Germany,  or  England. 

12.  [No  answer.] 

13.  There  are  some  self-supporting  native  churches ; 
but,  generally  speaking,  they  are  only  partially  so. 

14.  Doubtful. 

15.  [No  answer.] 

16.  At  present  indifferent ;  but  at  times  unfavor- 
able. 

17.  Shintoism  is  fast  declining  in  its  power.  Bud- 
dhistic faith  is  losing  its  hold  upon  the  minds  of  the 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW   JAPAN.  299 

people ;  but  the   priests  are  making  a  vigorous   at- 
tempt to  withstand  Christianity. 

18.  Romanism  has  little  or  no  influence  among  the 
educated  class  ;  but  it  is  gaining  its  adherents  among 
the  uneducated  mass.  They  are  said  to  far  outnum- 
ber the  Protestants.  The  Greek  Church  is  making 
considerable  progress. 

19.  The  condition  of  woman  in  Japan  is  not  so  de- 
graded as  foreigners  usually  imagine.  But  female 
education  is  to  be  encouraged  much  further. 

20.  To  an  immense  degree. 

21.  [No  answer.] 

22.  At  present  to  the  utmost  degree  and  as  far  as 
possible.  A  strong  Christian  college  is  the  great 
want. 

23.  They  ought  to  be  taught  to  adopt  Christianity 
only. 

Among  the  hindrances  to  the  evangelical  work  in 
Japan  we  respectfully  submit  the  following  to  your 
consideration  :  — 

1.  The  want  of  insight  on  the  part  of  missionaries 
into  the  Japanese  character. 

2.  The  want  of  their  attention  to  current  events. 

3.  Indiscreet  employment  of  native  preachers. 

4.  The  want  of  their  respect  toward  the  Japanese 
people. 

6.  Their  sectarian  bias. 

6.  Low  standard  of  Christian  literature  among 
some  missionaries. 

N.  Tamuea.  M.  Nyemura. 

H.  KozAKi.  K.  Ibuka. 


300  APPENDIX. 

ANSWERS   BY   DES.    GREENE,  GORDON,  AND   CURTIS, 
OE    KIOTO. 

1.  The  chief  objections  to  the  acceptance  of  Chris- 
tianity on  the  part  of  educated  Japanese  are  :  — 

(1.)  The  supernatural  element. 

(2.)  The  belief  that  Christianity  leads  men  to  un- 
dervalue the  virtues  of  filial  piety  and  patriotism. 
Special  stress  has  recently  been  laid  upon  this  ob- 
jection ;  and  it  has  been  argued  that  Christianity,  by 
lessening  the  patriotic  spirit,  will,  if  v^^idely  accepted, 
seriously  reduce  the  strength  of  the  nation,  and  not 
improbably  result  in  a  state  of  weak  dependence  upon 
some  foreign  power. 

(3.)  The  belief  that  Christianity  is  opposed  to  in- 
tellectual progress. 

(4.)  The  belief  that  the  teachings  of  Christianity 
are  in  conflict  with  modern  science. 

2.  Objections  to  the  acceptance  of  Christianity  by 
the  uneducated :  — 

,  (1.)  Prejudice  against  Christianity  as  a  foreign  re- 
ligion. 

(2.)  Fear  of  petty  persecution  from  friends  and 
neighbors. 

(3.)  The  sacrifices  which  Christianity  demands,  es- 
pecially those  connected  with  its  strict  morality,  and 
the  difliculty  of  keeping  the  Sabbath. 

3.  Among  the  educated  classes,  Confucianism,  be- 
cause of  its  agnostic  character;  but  among  the  unedu- 
cated, the  various  forms  of  Buddhism. 

4.  Materialism,  Agnosticism,  and  Atheism. 

5.  The  principal  native  newspapers  are  indifferent 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW    JAPAN.  301 

to  Christianity,  though  the  organs  of  the  various  sects 
of  Buddhism  assail  Christianity  as  vigorously  as  they 
know  how,  and  the  "  Jiji  Shimpo"  ("The  Times") 
opposes  its  progress  because  of  its  alleged  tendency 
to  weaken  the  national  power.  One  vernacular  pa- 
per and  several  periodicals  are  printed  in  the  inter- 
est of  Christianity  and  are  doing  good  service.  The 
English  papers  (the  term  English  applies  to  them 
not  only  because  they  are  printed  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, but  also  because  all  are  now  under  English 
control)  have  been  in  the  habit  of  speaking  slight- 
ingly of  missionaries ;  but  of  late  their  tone  has  been 
friendly,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware. 

6.  Although  a  number  of  eminently  good  men, 
who  have  not  failed  to  exert  a  most  valuable  Chris- 
tian influence,  have  been  employed  as  teachers  in  the 
public  schools,  yet  the  large  majority  of  the  teachers 
in  these  schools  have  been  opposed  to  evangelical 
Christianity,  and  by  no  means  a  small  share  of  them 
have  been  grossly  immoral  men.  A  considerable 
number  have  placed  themselves  in  active  opposition 
to  Christianity. 

7.  The  average  religious  effect  of  a  liberal  educa- 
tion in  the  highest  seats  of  learning  in  Japan  has 
been  decidedly  anti-Christian,  though  there  are  said 
to  be  a  few  Christians  among  the  students  in  the 
government  schools  of  Tokio. 

8.  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  the  works 
of  J.  S.  Mill,  Herbert  Spencer,  Draper,  and  Alexan- 
der Bain,  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason,"  and  several  na- 
tive works,  especially  one  entitled  "  Bemino,"  and 
several  of  the  publications  of  Mr.  Fukuzawa. 


302  APPENDIX. 

9.  Up  to  this  time  few  Christian  books  in  the  ver- 
nacular have  been  published,  though  a  good  many 
valuable  tracts  have  been  put  in  circulation.  Prob- 
ably all  would  agree  that,  aside  from  the  Scriptures, 
no  more  useful  book  than  the  "  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity," by  Dr.  Martin,  of  Peking,  has  been  circu- 
lated in  Japan.  The  number  of  copies  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  must  be  very  large.  Dr.  Williamson's 
work  on  "  Natural  Theology  "  has  had  a  considerable 
sale,  but  its  circulation  must  be  much  less  than  that 
of  Dr.  Martin's  book. 

10.  The  exhibition  of  God's  love  in  Christ  and  the 
purity  of  the  morality  of  Christianity  have,  perhaps, 
made  as  deep  an  impression  upon  the  Japanese  as 
any  parts  of  the  Christian  system.  The  personal  in- 
fluence of  the  missionaries  has  been  the  means  of 
bringing  very  many  to  Christianity. 

11.  A  considerable  number  have,  while  in  Amer- 
ica, connected  themselves  with  evangelical  churches  ; 
but  probably  not  one  in  five  of  such  persons  have 
maintained  a  Christian  life  after  returning  to  Japan. 
Those  who  have  are  among  the  most  influential  of 
the  Japanese  Christians. 

12.  Probably  most  of  the  foreign  residents  of  Ja- 
pan do  not  feel  prepared  for  any  radical  change  in 
the  present  exterritorial  arrangements.  They  would 
be  glad  to  see  Japan  freed  from  some  of  the  annoy- 
ances to  which  she  is  now  subjected  ;  but  they  are 
unwilling  to  be  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Japanese  government.  Since  the  codification  of  the 
laws  of  Japan,  there  is  less  complaint  of  the  laws ; 
but  a  good  deal  of  distrust  of  the  Japanese  courts 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW   JAPAN.  303 

is  manifested.  The  foreign  residents  profess  to  think 
that  the  judiciar}^  is  not  independent  of  the  execu- 
tive department  of  the  government,  and  that  there 
is  no  well-defined  limit  to  the  authority  of  the  police 
and  other  officials,  and  that,  should  they  come  under 
Japanese  jurisdiction,  they  would  find  themselves  an- 
noyed by  ill-advised  or  even  by  severely  oppressive 
legislation.  They  contend  that  the  Japanese  govern- 
ment is  not  yet  able  to  give  such  guarantees  for  the 
uniform  and  equitable  administration  of  justice  as 
Western  governments  have  a  right  to  require. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  if  a  court  of  appeals 
composed,  perhaps,  of  four  foreigners  and  five  Japan- 
ese, were  organized,  not  as  a  mixed  court  in  the  usual 
acceptation  of  that  term,  but  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  judicial  system  of  Japan,  with  the  provision  that 
all  cases  in  which  a  foreigner  were  concerned  might 
be  brought  before  it  on  appeal,  this  lack  of  confidence 
on  the  part  of  foreigners  and  their  governments  in 
the  judiciary  of  Japan  might  in  a  few  years  be  so  far 
overcome  that  the  leading  treaty  powers  would  gladly 
drop  the  obnoxious  clause.  To  secure  this  end  it 
would,  of  course,  be  necessary  to  arrange  for  the  pub- 
lication of  full  reports  in  English  and  Japanese  of 
all  cases  which  might  be  brought  before  this  court. 
It  is  probable  that  some  arrangement  of  this  sort 
must  precede  by  some  years  the  abandonment  of  the 
exterritorial  claims  of  the  treaty  powers. 

The  operation  of  this  provision  of  the  treaties  is 
by  no  means  appreciated  by  most  foreign  residents, 
or  there  would  be  more  hope  of  its  abandonment.  It 
operates  not  only  to  needlessly  irritate,  but  to  seri- 


304  APPENDIX. 

ously  hamper,  the  government  in  almost  every  di- 
rection. It  even,  in  some  cases,  renders  inoperative 
the  municipal  laws  of  the  land.  Witness  the  break- 
ing down  of  the  Health  Regulations  in  1879  (see 
"Foreign  Relations  of  the  U.  S.,  1879,"  p.  657/), 
and  the  continual  breach  of  the  Japanese  laws  against 
lotteries  in  the  neighborliood  of  Yokohama  (see  "  Ja- 
pan Weekly  Mail,"  April  22,  1882).  Were  it  nec- 
essary, illustrations  might  be  multiplied  of  the  con- 
tempt into  which  just  and  needful  laws  are  thrown 
by  the  conflict  of  authority  growing  out  of  the  pres- 
ent arrangements.  To  the  majority  of  our  missiona- 
ries it  seems  that  the  real  injury  to  the  Japanese 
government  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  advan- 
tages which  the  foreigners  enjoy  ;  and  they  would 
gladly  see  the  present  treaties  abrogated  to-morrow, 
and  the  Japanese  government  assume  jurisdiction 
over  resident  foreigners  as  fully  as  the  United  States 
government  does  over  similar  persons  within  her  own 
domain.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  change 
could  be  inaugurated  without  inconvenience,  but  it 
seems  fitting  that  the  inconvenience  should  fall  upon 
the  comparatively  few  foreigners  and  not  upon  the 
nation  of  Japan.  It  may  well  be  questioned  whether 
the  interests  of  American  citizens  would  not  be  as 
safe  in  the  hands  of  the  Japanese  government  as  in 
those  of  any  government  in  the  world  aside  from 
those  of  the  Protestant  countries  of  Europe  and 
America. 

D.  C.  G. 

13.  See  statistics. 

14.  I  think  they  should  be  encouraged  to  a  full 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW   JAPAN.  305 

consecration  of  their  means  to  Christ,  and  the  prac- 
tice of  giving  one  tenth  may  be,  and  has  been,  urged 
upon  them  with  happy  results ;  but  they  should  be 
cautioned  that  there  is  no  special  merit  in  giving  just 
that  proportion.  It  should  be  a  limit  helow  which 
they  are  not  to  fall,  rather  than  one  above  which  they 
should  not  think  of  rising.  We  have  not  a  few 
Christians,  I  am  convinced,  who  give  more  than  that 
proportion. 

15.  With  us  there  has  been  no  fixed  system,  and 
I  doubt  if  it  is  wise  to  have  one.  The  responsibility 
of  the  Japanese  Christians  for  the  full  management 
of  the  Japanese  churches  and  the  complete  evangel- 
ization of  Japan  (the  missionaries  being  merely  tem- 
porary guides  and  helpers)  is  the  essential  thing; 
modes  of  presenting  this  may  be  determined  by  the 
individual  tact  and  preferences  of  the  teacher  and 
the  condition  and  disposition  of  the  several  churches. 

16.  Some  members  of  the  government  are  hostile ; 
more  are  indifferent ;  others  are  convinced  that  Chris- 
tianity is  a  blessing,  and  are  ready  to  favor  it  as  it 
shall,  by  its  good  results,  commend  itself  to  the  peo- 
ple. 

17.  There  is  little  in  Shinto.  Confucianism  is 
largely  negative.  Buddhism  (two  or  three  sects  of 
it)  shows  as  much  life  and  power  here  in  Japan  as 
anywhere  on  earth.  Crowds  attend  its  (occasional) 
preaching  services,  and  large  gifts  flow  into  its  treas- 
ury. Among  these  latter  are  some  for  the  special 
purpose  of  opposing  Christianity. 

18.  It  is  said  that  both  use  money  freely,  and 
while  a  large  number  (say  5,000  for  the  Greek  and 

20 


306  APPENDIX. 

40,000  for  the  Roman  Church)  from  the  lower  classes 
are  claimed  as  adherents,  the  number  of  educated  be- 
lievers is  small.  The  patriotism  of  the  Japanese 
leads  them  to  look  with  suspicion  on  those  religions 
which  seem  so  closely  allied  with  the  idea  of  tem- 
poral power. 

19.  In  the  common  schools  much  more  is  done  for 
girls  than  formerly.  The  normal  school  for  girls, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  empress,  is  a  further  step 
in  the  same  direction.  Mission  schools  are  doing 
very  much  directly,  and  indirectly  their  influence  is 
beyond  measure. 

20.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  if  Christianity  has  no 
better  results  than  those  exhibited  by  the  foreign  res- 
idents Japan  has  little  to  gain  from  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  upright  and  unselfish  lives  of  many  Chris- 
tian residents  are  not  without  great  effect ;  and  the 
Japanese  readily  make  the  distinction  between  the 
two  classes. 

21.  Without  teaching  English  no  mission  school 
has  succeeded  or  can  succeed  in  Japan.  And  if  Eng- 
lish be  taught,  it  ought  to  be  taught  thoroughly. 
Our  girls  who  learn  English  at  all  should  be  able  to 
read  commentaries  like  those  of  Alford's  "New  Tes- 
tament for  English  Readers,"  or  those  of  Lyman  Ab- 
bott, and  also  biographies  and  other  religious  works. 
It  is  a  great  gain  to  have  our  young  men  able  to  use 
the  apologetic  literature  of  the  English  language. 

22.  They  should  not  be  taught  "  Western  "  man- 
ners, etc.,  at  all.  They  should  remain  as  far  as  possi- 
ble in  close  sympathy  and  fellowship  with  their  own 
people,  whom  they  are  to  win  to  Christ.     But  Chris- 


QUESTIONS   ON   NEW   JAPAN.  307 

tianity  will  indirectly  affect  manners  and  customs 
more  or  less  —  e.  g.  it  has  made  and  will  still  more 
make  the  clothing  comfortable  (flannels)  and  decent 
(underclothing)  ;  it  brings  a  more  sincere  and  unsel- 
fish politeness,  and  places  husband  and  wife  more 
nearly  on  an  equality,  etc. 

23.  [No  answer.] 

24.  Christians  in  America  fail  to  keep  in  mind  the 
dark  background  of  heathenism ;  and  so  truthful  re- 
ports of  changes  in  the  government  and  people  and 
of  progress  in  mission  work  give  an  exaggerated  im- 
pression of  what  has  been  done,  and  leave  but  a  very 
inadequate  idea  of  the  task  still  before  us. 

D.  C.  Greene,  \  Com.  of  the  Japan  Mis- 
M.  L.  Gordon,  >  sion  of  the  Ameri- 
W.  W.  Curtis,  )      caii  Board. 

ANSWERS   BY  THE   REV.  J.  H.  NEESIMA   AND    OTHER 
JAPANESE,    OF    KIOTO. 

1.  They  think  that  Christianity  will  destroy  pa- 
triotism, filial  duty,  loyalty  to  the  Mikado,  give  rise 
to  religious  wars,  become  the  secret  means  of  foreign 
interference. 

They  regard  the  supernatural  elements  in  Chris- 
tianity as  an  outgrowth  of  superstitions  and  to  be 
antagonistic  to  modern  sciences. 

They  confound  Protestantism  with  Roman  and 
Greek  Catholicism. 

2.  They  regard  Christianity  as  a  foreign  religion. 
They  fear  the  government  persecutions  on  account 

of  the  attitude  of  the  government  toward  the  Roman 
Catholics  in  the  past. 


308  APPENDIX. 

They  regard  Christianity  as  a  demon's  religion. 
They  regard  the  Sabbath  and  other  Christian  dis- 
ciplines as  too  severe  and  impracticable. 

3.  (a.)  Pride,  Materialism,  Pantheism,  and  ances- 
tral worship  among  the  Confucianists. 

(5.)  Worship  of  mammon  and  lusts,  under  the  va- 
rious forms  of  idolatry. 

4.  The  influence  of  the  materialistic  and  skeptical 
writers,  like  Buckle,  Mill,  Spencer,  etc.,  is  felt  very 
largely  among  the  educated  class. 

5.  Generally  indifferent. 

6.  The  influence  of  Christian  teachers  has  been 
generally  very  weak,  overpowered  by  some  bold  in- 
fidel teachers. 

7.  Quite  antagonistic  to  Christianity. 

8.  The  works  of  Buckle,  Mill,  Draper,  Thomas 
Paine,  Herbert  Spencer,  Alexander  Bain,  and  Robert 
Ingersoll. 

9.  Dr.  Martin's  "  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  Wil- 
liamson's "  Natural  Theology,"  both  in  Chinese.  No 
English  apologetic  works  are  read  except  by  Chris- 
'tians. 

10.  (a.)  The  excellence  of  the  Christian  ethics. 
(5.)  The  reasonableness  of  the  Christian  system, 
(c.)  The  doctrine  of  the  New  Birth. 

(c?.)  The  doctrine  of  the  Atonement. 

(e.')  The  doctrine  of  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul. 

11.  Quite  unfavorable.  Very  few  of  those  edu- 
cated in  Europe  and  America  having  come  back  con- 
sistent Christians. 

12.  [No  answer.] 


QUESTIONS    ON    NEW    JAPAN.  309 

13.  Those   connected   with  A.   B.  C.  F.   M.   are 

mostly  self-supporting. 

14.  Yes.     But  must  be  done  with  great  caution.    " 

15.  Gradual  diminution  of  foreign  money  in  pro- 
portion to  the  growth  of  the  churches. 

16.  Apparently  indifferent. 

17.  They  are  making  their  very  best  efforts. 

18.  The  Roman  Catholic  membership  is  very  large ; 
but  they  are  very  ignorant,  and  hence  are  of  no  in- 
fluence. The  Greek  Catholics  are  also  making  con- 
siderable progress  in  North  Japan. 

19.  Nothing  is  done  outside  of  the  Christian  com- 
munities except  a  few  government  schools.  The 
Christian  education  of  women  ought  to  be  very 
strongly  encouraged. 

20.  They  are  held  out  as  the  representatives  of 
Christian  countries ;  hence,  the  evils  are  very  great. 

21.  At  least  as  high  as  in  the  government  univer- 
sity. 

22.  Only  Christian  principles  ought  to  be  taught. 

23.  (a.)  Some  of  the  missionaries  do  not  seem  to 
appreciate  sufficiently  the  importance  of  raising  up 
first-class  Christian  workers. 

(6.)  Some  of  the  missionaries  do  not  seem  to  ap- 
preciate fully  the  good  influence  which  Christian  in- 
structors, physicians,  and  statesmen  could  exert  in 
Japanese  society. 

(c.)  Some  of  the  American  and  English  mission- 
ary societies  seem  to  depend  on  the  quantity  rather 
than  on  the  quality  of  the  missionaries.  Hence,  the 
utmost  need  of  a  Christian  university,  with  able  pro- 


310  APPENDIX. 

fessors,  to  raise  up  consecrated  and  scholarly  preach- 
ers, teachers,  statesmen,  and  physicians. 

Joseph  H.  Neesbia.        P.  M.  Kanamori. 

A.    T.   FUWA.  S.   J.    MUJAGAWA. 

J.  T.  IzE.  G.  En.  Kato. 

L.   M.   ICHIHABA.  A.   S.   YOSHIDA. 

H.  K.  MoEiTA.  J.  K.  Ebina. 


APPENDIX  V. 

THE  FUTURE   OF  JAPANESE  CIVILIZATION. 
SPEECH  AT  KIOTO,  JAPAN,  MAY  24,  1882. 

Through  Professor  Ichihara  as  Interpreter. 


The  occasion  on  which  the  foUowing  address  was  delivered  has  been 
described  by  the  Rev.  M.  L.  Gordon,  M.  D. ,  a  professor  in  the  Colle- 
giate School  of  Kioto.  "The  Kioto  meeting,"  he  writes,  "was  re- 
markable in  several  respects.  While  a  national  parliament  has  not 
yet  been  established,  there  are  already  local  assemblies  where  repre- 
sentatives, elected  by  the  people,  discuss  and  decide  many  matters  of 
local  interest.  That  which  meets  in  Kioto  includes  the  city  and  two 
or  three  outlying  provinces.  Leading  members  of  this  assembly  in- 
vited Mr.  Cook  to  deliver  the  address,  and  they  provided  the  building 
and  assumed  all  the  expenses.  They  issued  tickets  of  admission,  and 
many  members  of  the  assembly  and  leading  officials  of  the  city  gov- 
ernment were  present,  the  vice-governor  being  on  the  platform.  Some 
Buddhist  priests  were  invited  and  were  present,  as  were  many  of  the 
most  intelligent  men  of  the  city. 

"  The  largest  building  that  could  that  day  be  secured  was  a  theatre 
holding  1,200  to  1,500,  and  it  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity.  Mr. 
Cook's  address,  with  its  interpretation,  occupied  three  hours  and  three 
quarters,  during  the  whole  of  which  time,  with  perhaps  the  exception 
of  the  last  twenty  minutes  when  some  began  to  leave  the  room,  there 
was  the  most  perfect  order.  The  address  was  the  same  as  that  given 
in  Kobe  and  Osaka,  only  fuller  and  more  outspoken.  It  was  indeed  a 
rare  day,  and  as  he  sowed  with  a  full  hand  those  seeds  of  Evangelical 
Christian  truth  into  minds  which,  if  they  had  heard  at  all,  had  heard 
from  afar,  one  could  not  help  the  feeling  that  the  hand  of  God  was  in 
it,  and  that  He  would  not  suffer  His  word  to  return  unto  Him  void.  It 
is  probable  that  the  address  was  more  distinctively  religious  than  some 


312  APPENDIX. 

expected  it  to  be,  still  the  manag-ers  of  the  meeting  knew  what  !Mr. 
Cook's  addresses  had  been  elsewhere,  and  they  invited  him  without 
even  a  shadow  of  a  suggestion  that  he  should  trim  his  speech. 

' '  Coming  out  of  that  meeting  with  the  recollection  that  that  great 
audience  of  legislators,  a  vice-governor  and  many  lower  officials,  phy- 
sicians, lawyers,  editors,  teachers,  pupils,  priests,  merchants,  etc.,  had 
been  sitting  in  perfect  quietness  and  attention  for  four  hours,  listening 
to  a  Christian  preacher,  a  foreigner,  too,  at  that,  declaring  here  in  this 
old,  sacred  city  of  Kioto  that  Christianity  alone  can  give  them  the 
civilization  they  seek,  the  safe  constitutional  freedom  to  which  they 
aspire,  and  then  recalling  the  fact  that  within  ten  years  a  Protes- 
tant Christian,  imprisoned  for  his  faith  alone,  died  in  the  prison  of 
this  same  city,  one  could  hardly  help  shouting :  What  hath  God 
•wrought!  " 


CLASSICAL  ASSOCIATIONS   OF   KIOTO. 

It  is  a  cheerful  sign  of  the  times  that  an  eager  and 
crowded  assembly  like  this  can  be  gathered  within  the 
rim  of  the  sacred  hills  of  Kioto,  the  Jerusalem  of  Re- 
formed Buddhism,  to  listen  to  a  discussion  of  the  re- 
lations of  Christianity  to  the  future  of  Japanese  civ- 
ilization. A  noble  and  venerable  city,  always  spoken 
of  by  the  Japanese  with  reverential  tenderness  and 
exulting  pride,  beautiful  for  situation,  the  joy  of  this 
whole  empire,  Kioto  is  filled  with  the  temples  and 
schools  of  your  traditional  faiths,  and  crowded  with 
classic  and  sacred  associations.  It,  or  its  vicinity, 
has  been  for  seventeen  centuries  the  residence  of  the 
Mikado  himself,  a  ruler  whose  family  line  antedates 
the  Roman  Empire,  and  is  the  oldest  continuous  dy- 
nasty on  earth. 

I  am  aware  that  many  opinions  entirely  antago- 
nistic to  my  own  are  represented  in  this  audience. 
The  Japanese,  however,  are  the  first  of  the  nations 
of  Asia  to  make  it  a  part  of  their  public  policy  to 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  313 

cultivate  and  extend  the  sacred  liberty  of  free  speech. 
In  employing  it,  I  hope  I  shall  not  forget  for  an  in- 
stant the  high  requirements  of  Japanese  courtesy. 

It  must  be  evident  that  no  sinister  or  selfish  mo- 
tive actuates  the  speaker  who  has  here  and  now  the 
honor  to  address  you.  I  am  in  the  pay  of  no  society, 
committee,  or  individual.  I  am  the  representative  of 
no  religious,  political,  or  other  organization.  On  a 
lecture  tour  around  the  world,  I  am  speaking  here  in 
response  to  the  explicit  invitation  of  certain  honor- 
able members  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  of  Kioto. 
I  am  an  American  ;  and  my  republic  does  not  own, 
nor  desire  to  own,  a  square  foot  of  soil  in  Asia. 

CHAETER    OATH   OF    THE   MIKADO. 

I  rejoice  in  your  loyalty  to  the  Emperor  of  Japan. 

But  it  is  he  who  has  proclaimed  religious  toleration 
throughout  his  dominions. 

It  is  he  who  has  assured  his  subjects  that  all  pub- 
lic measures  shall  be  determined  by  public  opinion. 

It  is  he  who,  in  the  great  Charter  Oath  which  he 
took  in  1868,  and  which  forms  the  basis  of  your  new 
constitution,  promised  that  intellect  and  learning 
should  be  sought  for  throughout  the  world  to  estab- 
lish the  foundations  of  the  empire. 

It  is  he  who  announced  in  1881  his  purpose  of  or- 
ganizing in  1890  an  Imperial  Parliament,  conducted 
on  the  principles  of  representative  institutions. 

It  is  he  who  said,  in  a  solemn  state  paper,  making 
these  pledges  to  the  people,  "  Our  ancestors  watch  us 
from  Heaven,  and  we  recognize  our  responsibility  to 
them  for  the  performance  of  our  high  duties." 


314  APPENDIX. 

The  Charter  Oath  of  the  Emperor  of  Japan  is  my 
justification  for  freedom  of  speech.  It  is  the  basis  of 
my  confidence  that  you  will  listen  with  patience  to  a 
discussion  of  the  relations  of  Christianity  to  the  fu- 
ture of  Japanese  civilization.  He  who  has  taken 
this  oath  is  most  certainly  no  chilled  and  benighted 
materialist.  He  does  not  doubt  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  nor  that  there  is  a  judgment  to  come. 

In  our  toleration  of  the  just  liberties  of  public  dis- 
cussion, let  us  imitate  the  deliberate  action  of  the  ex- 
alted ruler  of  this  empire  ;  let  us  be  faithful  to  the 
high  instruction  of  his  example  in  permitting  and 
promoting  political  and  religious  freedom.  Above 
all,  let  us  imitate  his  solemnity  in  presence  of  the 
mighty  problems  of  your  future.  Let  us  be  willing 
to  study  the  perils  as  well  as  the  promises  of  the 
great  transitional  period  through  which  Japan  is 
moving  in  our  time.  Let  the  souls  of  Okubo  and 
Kido  counsel  us.  Let  the  martyred  patriots  of  Se- 
kigahara,  where  the  unification  of  Japan  was  com- 
;nenced  in  1600,  and  of  Fushimi,  where  it  was  com- 
pleted in  1868,  inspire  us  to  carry  forward  and  finish 
the  immense  reforms  which  their  labors  began.  Let 
us  conduct  our  discussions  as  to  the  future  of  this 
empire,  as  if  in  sight  of  ancestors  who  watch  us 
from  the  woi'ld  into  which  all  men  haste. 

UNPARALLELED  PROGRESS   OF    JAPAN  SINCE   1868. 

Thirty  years  ago  Japan  was  a  hermit  nation  ;  to- 
day she  is  the  advanced  guard  of  the  civilization  of 
Eastern  Asia. 

In  one  generation  she  has  made  changes  which  it 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  315 

required  five  and  seven  centuries  to  effect  in  Eu- 
rope. 

Within  fifteen  marvelous  years  Japan  has  abol- 
ished the  feudal  system ;  emancipated  four  fifths  of 
her  people  from  vassalage  and  made  them  in  effect 
proprietors  of  the  soil ;  disarmed  a  warlike  nobility, 
which  had  probably  six  hundred  thousand  adherents 
trained  to  military  service;  established  and  equipped 
an  army  and  navy  on  the  most  approved  models ; 
assured  the  freedom  of  conscience  ;  introduced  rail- 
ways, steam-navigation,  the  press,  and  a  general  pos- 
tal and  savings  system ;  founded  universities,  and 
ordained  a  free  system  of  compulsory  education  for 
the  instruction  of  all  the  children  of  a  population 
numbering  thirty-five  millions. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  nations  have  changes 
equally  important  been  effected  with  such  rapidity. 

It  was  my  fortune,  a  few  days  since,  to  give  a  lec- 
ture at  the  very  spot  on  the  historic  shore  of  Yoko- 
hama, where,  only  twenty-eight  years  ago,  the  Amer- 
ican Commodore  Perry  erected  the  first  telegraphic 
wire  and  placed  on  its  track  the  first  railway  loco- 
motive ever  seen  in  these  islands.  On  that  chissic 
ground  now  stands  the  church-building  of  the  first 
native  Protestant  Christian  society  organized  in  Ja- 
pan. It  looks  out  upon  a  harbor  filled  with  represen- 
tatives of  the  fleets  of  all  nations.  It  is  but  fourteen 
years  since  the  teaching  of  Christianity  ceased  to  be 
prohibited  in  this  empire.  Already  native  Christian 
churches  of  Japan  begin  to  be  self-supporting. 

Face  to  face  with  Asia,  your  nation  has  been  the 
first  to  abandon  Asiatic  ideals  of  civilization  and  to 


316  APPENDIX. 

adopt  those  of  Europe  and  America.  There  is  no 
spot  in  your  territory  so  obscure  or  remote  as  not  to 
have  heard  the  rumble  of  the  wheels  of  progress. 

Japan  has  risen  from  the  dull,  low  plain  of  feudal- 
ism to  the  commanding  heights  of  political  and  relig- 
ious freedom,  almost  as  suddenly  as  her  own  Fujisan 
is  said  to  have  sprang  forth  in  a  single  night  from  the 
level  of  the  sea  to  the  peerless  elevation  of  its  daz- 
zling snows,  the  last  to  lose  the  rays  of  the  setting 
and  the  first  to  greet  those  of  the  rising  sun. 

BASELESS    FEARS    AS    TO    POLITICAL    PURPOSES    OF 
PROTESTANTISM   IN   JAPAN. 

The  Jesuits  in  the  seventeenth  century  incurred 
persecution  in  Japan  chiefly  because  they  were  sup- 
posed to  have  the  secret  political  purpose  of  annex- 
ing this  empire  to  Portugal  or  Spain.  From  that 
day  to  this  there  have  been  those  who  have  feared 
that  the  propagandisra  of  Christianity  here  must  end 
in  making  Japan  subject  to  some  foreign  power.  All 
,  intelligent  men  who  know  the  difference  between  the 
nineteenth  century  and  the  seventeenth,  and  between 
Roman  Catholicism  and  Protestantism,  will  smile  at 
the  obvious  baselessness  of  such  apprehensions.  The 
Jesuits  who  were  here  in  Xavier's  day  may  have  had 
political  motives ;  the  Protestants  who  are  here  to- 
day have  none. 

I  know  the  personal  history  of  many  of  the  heroic 
and  devout  men  and  women  who  have  come  here 
from  America  and  Europe  to  teach  Christianity. 
They  have  made  great  sacrifices  in  leaving  their  na- 
tive lands.     Their  thorough  education,  their  energy, 


SPEECH   AT  KIOTO.  317 

their  self-sacrifice,  their  lofty  character,  would  have 
given  them  at  home  mo§t  desirable  positions.  They 
have  been  brought  here  by  motives  as  free  from  po- 
litical or  selfish  taint  as  ever  your  azure  Japanese  sky 
was  from  clouds.  They  will  not  be  without  their  re- 
ward at  the  last  great  day  when  God  makes  up  his 
jewels.  There  is  to  come  a  time  when  they  who  have 
turned  many  to  righteousness  will  shine  as  stars  in 
the  firmament.  These  men  and  women  would  scorn 
the  offer  of  reward  in  the  shape  of  political  power,  or 
any  secular  emolument,  either  for  themselves,  or  for 
the  countries  from  which  they  come.  They  are  un- 
der the  most  solemn  engagements  to  the  societies  they 
represent  not  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  your  polit- 
ical arrangements.  So  far  are  they  from  represent- 
ing directly  or  indirectly  any  open  or  covert  scheme 
of  political  aggression,  that  if  they  should  favor  any 
such  enterprise,  they  would  be  instantly  dropped 
from  their  positions  by  their  immediate  superiors,  and 
inevitably  lose  all  support  from  the  Protestant  Chris- 
tian populations  of  the  West. 

RETURNED   JAPANESE  EXILES. 

Remember  the  heroic  and  pathetic  story  of  some 
of  your  own  citizens,  who,  as  young  men,  ventured 
much  to  obtain  a  liberal  education  in  America, 
brought  back  from  there  a  profound  faith  in  Protes- 
tant Christianity,  and  are  now  occupying  among  you 
high  positions  as  teachers  and  organizers  of  public 
sentiment.  There  is  in  my  city  of  Boston  a  princely 
merchant  whose  ships  have  visited  all  the  zones,  and 
whose  Christian  faith  is  not  merely  a  creed,  but  a 


318  APPENDIX. 

life.  There  is  to-day  on  this  platform  a  revered  cit- 
izen of  yours,  whom  this  merchant  educated  in  Amer- 
ica, and  whose  history  reads  like  a  romance.  Im- 
pelled by  the  desire  to  study  that  Bible  which  has 
made  Western  nations  great,  he  escaped  when  a  boy 
from  Japan  at  the  risk  of  his  life.  He  was  brought 
by  Divine  Providence  across  the  multitudinous  seas 
to  Boston,  to  a  Christian  home  there,  to  a  New  Eng- 
land College  and  Theological  Hall,  and  finally  to  his 
own  land  once  more  and  to  this  city,  to  found  here  a 
Christian  College  of  secular  and  sacred  learning, 
which  may  God  make  a  Pillar  of  Fire  in  the  future 
of  Japanese  civilization  !  There  are  no  men  in  your 
islands  more  loyal  to  all  the  highest  interests  of  your 
empire  than  those  who  in  the  West  have  received  an 
advanced  education  and  learned  to  revere  a  scholarly 
and  aggressive  Christianity.  Would  God  we  could 
multiply  a  thousandfold  in  Japan  the  number  and 
the  influence  of  your  Samajamas  and  Neesimas ! 
Then  your  political  and  educational  and  religious 
welfare  would  be  assured,  and  with  this  your  inde- 
pendence of  foreign  control. 

TRAITS   OF   JAPANESE   CHAEACTER. 

The  island  of  Pappenberg,  at  the  opening  of  the 
beautiful  harbor  of  Nagasaki,  was  the  first  part  of 
your  empire  on  which  my  eyes  rested.  It  is  called 
the  Tarpeian  Rock  of  Japan.  Down  its  giddy  prec- 
icipes  there  were  cast  in  the  seventeenth  century 
many  whose  knowledge  of  Christianity  was  defective, 
indeed,  but  who  valued  the  little  that  they  knew 
above  life.     I  came  into  Japan  through  that  one  of 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  319 

your  ocean  gates  which  has  been  made  sacred  by  the 
memory  of  many  Christian  martyrdoms.  It  is  not 
wonderful  that  I  should  have  been  led  to  study  from 
the  first  the  serious  side  of  your  national  character. 
You  are  called  the  French  of  the  East.  You  are  like 
the  French  in  artistic  taste,  in  literary  capacity,  in 
courtesy,  in  love  of  pleasure,  in  vivacity,  in  courage, 
in  patriotism,  and  in  aspiration  for  progress.  Your 
critics  say  that,  if  you  have  faults,  they  are  much 
like  those  of  the  French ;  but  I,  for  one,  see  no  evi- 
dence in  your  history  that  you  possess  that  combina- 
tion of  ferocity  and  frivolity  which  led  Voltaire  once 
to  describe  his  countrymen  as  a  race  of  tiger-apes. 
The  Japanese  have  an  exquisite  perception  of  the 
beautiful  in  nature  and  art,  a  native  untutored  taste 
unmatched  except  among  the  ancient  Greeks ;  and  a 
sense  of  honor  not  surpassed  in  the  days  of  chivalry 
by  any  people  of  Europe.  But,  if  you  are  somewhat 
like  the  French  in  the  lighter  traits  of  character, 
you  are  like  them  also  in  the  more  serious.  You  are 
like  them  in  the  capacity  of  producing  Huguenots  — 
men  whose  religious  convictions  do  not  waver  al- 
though subjected  to  the  fiercest  flames  of  persecution. 
The  history  of  the  island  of  Pappenberg  proves  your 
capacity  for  religious  martyrdom.  Your  native  tem- 
ples, your  past  and  present  relations  to  Christianity, 
your  literature,  your  family  life,  show  that  you  pos- 
sess high  religious  endowments. 

TWO   CHIEF    PEOPOSITIONS. 
Japan  is  ripe,  not  for  second-rate  things,  but  for 
first-rate.     In  adopting  a  new  civilization,  Japan  has 


320  APPENDIX. 

taken  for  her  watchword  :  "  Never  the  second-best ; 
always  the  first-best."  If  she  adopts  the  first-best, 
she  will  adopt  Christianity. 

America,  England,  Scotland,  Germany,  wish  Japan 
to  be  great,  enlightened,  free,  independent.  The 
Christian  world  believes  that  Japan  cannot  be  either 
of  these  unless  she  become  Christian. 

What  are  to  be  the  relations  of  Christianity  to  the 
future  of  Japanese  civilization  ?  What  is  to  be  the 
religious  future  of  Japan?  These  are  by  far  the 
most  searching  questions  of  the  present  hour  in  this 
empire.     I  venture  to  maintain  two  propositions  :  — 

1.  You  could  not  shut  Christianity  out  of  Japan  if 
you  would. 

2.  You  would  not  exclude  Christianity  from  Japan 
if  you  could. 

Allow  me  to  give  my  reasons  for  believing  that 
you  could  not  shut  Christianity  out  of  Japan  if  you 
would. 

THEEE  ARE  NO  FOEEIGN  LANDS. 

God  be  thanked  that  in  our  day  there  are  no  for- 
eign lands  !  Caesar  could  not  drive  his  chariot  around 
the  borders  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  less  than  one 
hundred  days ;  we  can  now  send  a  letter  around  the 
whole  globe  in  ninety.  London,  or  New  York,  or 
Yokohama  is  as  near  in  time  to  the  outskirts  of  civ- 
ilization in  every  corner  of  the  earth  as  Rome  was 
to  the  borders  of  the  empire  of  Augustus.  The  in- 
crease of  all  means  of  intercommunication  is  so  vast 
and  rapid  in  our  time,  that  the  isolation  of  people 
from  people  is  becoming  impracticable.  The  mental 
seclusion  of  India,  of  Central  Asia,  of  China,  and  even 


SPEECH  AT  KIOTO.  321 

of  Africa  must  and  will  be  broken  up.  There  can 
be  no  more  hermit  nations. 

Japan  cannot  live  behind  a  screen.  She  could 
not  if  she  would ;  and  her  recent  history  proves  that 
she  would  not  if  she  could. 

There  is  coming  to  be  one  system  of  military  and 
naval  training,  one  style  of  engineering,  one  chem- 
istry, one  geology,  one  astronomy,  one  code  of  inter- 
national law  and  of  morals,  and  so  also  one  spiritual 
faith  for  all  nations.  The  chemistry,  the  geology,  the 
astronomy  which  maintains  itself  in  the  West  will 
maintain  itself  in  the  East.  The  spiritual  faith 
which  maintains  itself  there  will  maintain  itself  here. 
Christianity,  and  it  only,  as  every  intelligent  man 
knows,  is  thus  sustaining  itself  and  proving  its  right 
to  universal  empire. 

WOELD-WIDE  TRIUMPHS   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Consider  the  astounding  rapidity  of  the  advances 
of  Christianity  within  the  latest  and  most  enlight- 
ened of  the  centuries.  I  measure  here  upon  tliis  ta- 
ble three  hands'  breadths  to  represent  the  first  1500 
years  of  the  Christian  era.  In  this  space  of  time 
Christianity  gained  100,000,000  adherents.  But  in 
the  next  three  fingers'  breadths,  that  is  in  the  300 
years  immediately  succeeding  the  reformation  under 
Luther,  it  gained  100,000,000  more.  In  the  next 
finger's  breadth,  that  is,  in  the  single  century  in 
which  we  live,  it  has  gained  210,000,000  more.  In 
the  last  century  Christianity  has  gained  as  many  ad- 
herents as  in  all  the  eighteen  preceding  centuries  of 
the  Christian  Era.  The  number  of  Christians  in  the 
world  is  now  estimated  at  410,000,000. 


322  APPENDIX. 

Your  Japanese  mats  are  each  six  feet  long.  If  the 
Christians  of  the  world  were  to  sit  down  together  on 
a  row  of  such  mats,  two  on  each  mat,  the  line  would 
extend  around  the  whole  globe,  once,  twice,  thrice, 
six,  nine,  eleven  times  !  Were  the  Christians  of  the 
world  to  stand  up  side  by  side  and  join  hands,  they 
would  engirdle  the  whole  planet  eleven  times. 

In  the  year  1800  there  were  only  50  translations 
of  the  Bible  in  existence ;  now  there  are  308.  At 
the  opening  of  this  century  there  were  expended  for 
missions  only  <£50,000  annually  ;  now  there  are  spent 
for  that  purpose  .£1,700,000  each  year  —  a  small  sum, 
indeed,  but  one  which  is  rapidly  increasing.  There 
are  so  many  copies  of  the  Scriptures  now  printed 
and  distributed  that  there  is  one  Bible  in  circula- 
tion for  every  ten  inhabitants  of  the  planet.  There 
are  50,000  preachers  and  teachers  of  Christianity, 
and  more  than  1,000,000  enrolled  church-members 
in  pagan  lands.  Fifty  years  ago  there  were  only 
2,000,000  scholars  and  teachers  in  the  Sunday-schools 
of  the  world  ;  now  there  are  over  14,000,000.  Let 
niy  hand  represent  the  whole  population  of  the 
world.  Three  fifths  of  it,  and  those  the  most  im- 
portant fifths,  —  thumb,  forefinger,  and  middle  finger, 
—  are  under  Christian  governments.  Great  Britain 
alone  rules  one  third  of  the  habitable  surface  and  one 
fourth  of  the  population  of  the  globe.  India  has 
half  a  million  of  Protestant  Christians.  They  have 
doubled  their  numbers  every  ten  years  for  the  last 
forty  years.  Professor  Legge  says  that  if  the  Prot- 
estant Christians  in  China  go  on  increasing  in  num- 
ber as  rapidly  as  they  have  of  late,  they  will  be  at 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  323 

least  100,000,000  in  1950.  I  am  assured  by  the 
best  statisticians  that  it  is  quite  within  the  power  of 
Christianity  as  a  whole  to  bring  a  knowledge  of  the 
spoken  or  written  gospel  before  the  end  of  another 
quarter  of  a  century  to  every  inhabitant  of  the  globe. 
Already  the  bells  of  Christian  churches  and  the  lights 
on  Christian  ships  are  nearly  in  sight  and  hearing  of 
each  other  around  the  entire  earth. 

These  immense  advances  of  Christianity  I  do  not 
mention  to  prove  its  truth  as  a  system  of  faith,  but 
simply  to  show  that  you  cannot  seclude  yourselves 
from  it. 

Railways,  telegraphs,  printing-presses,  universities, 
have  come  to  Japan  to  stay,  and  so  has  Christianity. 

Your  love  of  political  freedom  will  favor  religious 
freedom.  The  love  of  political  freedom  is  one  of  the 
most  intense  passions  of  the  population  of  this  em- 
pire. You  will  not  tolerate  persecution  for  the  sake 
of  religion.  I  venture  to  predict  that  the  Japanese 
will  never  again  prohibit  the  teaching  of  Christian- 
ity. It  will  obtain  a  full  and  fair  hearing.  When 
it  has  once  done  this,  your  misconceptions  of  it  will 
pass  away.  It  will  be  impossible  for  you  to  think 
that  its  teachers  have  covert  political  motives.  It 
will  be  impossible  for  infidels  to  caricature  it.  It 
will  be  impossible  for  the  froth  and  scum  of  Western 
civilization  in  your  sea-ports  to  mislead  you  in  your 
judgment  as  to  its  effects  in  practice.  Your  own  na- 
tive Christian  churches  are  becoming  numerous,  self- 
supporting,  and  aggressive.  They  will  be  as  cities 
set  on  hills.  Christianity  will  exhibit  itself  here  in 
private  life  and  in  public  organizations  and  be  known 


324  APPENDIX. 

by  its  fruits.  It  will  absorb  the  most  advanced  sci- 
ence. It  will  found  colleges,  universities,  and  med- 
ical, theological,  legal,  and  philosophical  schools.  It 
will  sanctify  and  transfigure  family  life.  It  will 
teach  immortality  ;  the  being  and  attributes  of  a  per- 
sonal God ;  the  necessity  of  the  new  birth  and  the 
atonement  ;  the  eternal  judgment.  Filling  all  the 
world  with  its  light,  it  will  kindle  here  a  holy  radi- 
ance which  no  part  of  the  Orient  can  escape. 

RELATIONS    OF    CHRISTIANITY    TO   POLITICAL    FREE- 
DOM. 

Having  given  my  reasons  for  believing  that  you 
could  not  shut  Christianity  out  of  Japan  if  you 
would,  let  me  now  explain  why  I  hope  you  would 
not  if  you  could. 

You  are  patriotic  and  wish  to  preserve  the  great 
benefits  which  your  immense  reforms,  when  com- 
pleted, will  bring  to  you.  You  are  passionately  at- 
tached to  political  freedom.  Only  Christianity  can 
make  your  political  freedom  safe.  France  is  a  proof 
that  freedom  cannot  be  built  upon  infidelity.  Every 
people  that  Roman  Catholicism  has  exclusively  gov- 
erned through  centuries  has  been  left  in  a  state  of 
prolonged  childhood.  But  Romanism  has  done  more 
for  those  it  has  led  than  ever  Buddhism  has  accom- 
plished for  its  adherents.  Romanism  never  prepared 
a  people  for  such  political  freedom  as  you  expect  to 
enjoy.  Buddhism,  even  in  its  reformed  shape,  will 
not  answer  your  needs  as  patriots. 

You  purpose  in  1890  to  organize  an  Imperial  Par- 
liament on  the  basis  of  representative  institutions. 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  325 

You  are  beginning  the  formation  of  political  parties. 
The  winds  of  faction  begin  to  blow  over  your  polit- 
ical sea.  In  the  quiet  waters  of  despotic  govern- 
ments, you  may  float  safely  on  mere  rafts ;  but  in  the 
rough  seas  of  freedom  you  must  have  staunch  vessels 
or  you  will  sink.  Governments  of  the  people,  for 
the  people,  by  the  people,  are  possible  only  through 
the  diffusion  of  conscientiousness  among  the  people. 
Among  the  citizens  of  my  native  republic,  it  is  a 
commonplace  truth  that  safe  political  freedom  con- 
sists in  the  diffusion  of  intelligence,  liberty,  property, 
and  conscientiousness.  It  must  be  made  up  of  the 
four  and  not  of  any  three,  or  two,  or  one  of  these 
alone.  Christianity  is  the  only  religion  known  to 
history  which  has  ever  prepared  a  nation  for  political 
freedom  based  on  wide  popular  suffrage. 

It  is  a  most  striking  fact  that  the  map  of  the  Prot- 
estant countries  of  the  world  in  which  Sundays  are 
best  observed,  that  is,  Switzerland,  Germany,  Great 
Britain,  and  the  United  States,  is  almost  precisely  the 
same  as  the  map  of  the  countries  in  which  safe  po- 
litical freedom  exists.  There  is  freedom  in  Fiance, 
but  how  long  will  it  last  ?  There  is  freedom  in  Aus- 
tria, but  it  has  a  bayonet  through  it.  There  is  free- 
dom in  Russia,  but  it  has  a  scourge  above  its  back. 
Only  the  countries  in  which  Christianity  teaches  the 
people  conscientiousness,  only  those  in  which  the 
Christian  Sundays  give  opportunity  to  make  the  mass 
of  the  people  serious,  moral,  and  rehgious,  show  fit- 
ness for  such  freedom  as  the  Japanese  hope  to  enjoy. 

Alexis  De  Tocqueville  said,  ''  A  nation  never  needs 
so  much  to  be  theocratic  as  when  it  is  the  most  dem- 


326  APPENDIX. 

ocratic."  Political  liberty  with  Christianity,  it  has 
been  wisely  affirmed,  is  heaven ;  political  liberty 
without  Christianity  is  hell. 

If  Japan  becomes  free  and  does  not  become  Chris- 
tian, she  will  never  rise  above  the  rank  of  a  third  or 
fourth  rate  power.  Since  the  Japanese  expelled  the 
Moghuls,  your  people  have  shown  no  greater  dread  of 
any  political  disaster  than  of  that  of  coming  under 
the  dominion  of  any  foreign  nation.  With  freedom 
and  without  Christianity,  Japan,  as  I  for  one  most 
solemnly  believe,  will  be  so  divided  against  herself 
and  so  weak  as  ultimately  to  lose  her  national  in- 
dependence. Instead  of  being  too  patriotic  to  admit 
Christianity  to  Japan,  you  will  be  too  patriotic  to 
exclude  it. 

America  wishes  Japan  to  be  great,  free,  enlight- 
ened, progressive,  independent.  The  course  of  his- 
tory in  the  West  for  1500  years  proves  that  no  na- 
tion can  be  all  these  without  being  Christian. 

INADEQUACIES   OF  REFORMED  BUDDHISM. 

You  are  intelligent,  and  wish  a  religion  that  will 
bear  examination.  Christianity  is  such  a  religion, 
and  Buddhism  is  not.  You  sent  lately  two  Buddhist 
missionaries  from  this  city  to  the  West  to  learn  the 
opinion  of  the  great  scholars  there  as  to  Buddhism. 
Max  Miiller  at  Oxford  told  them  that  Gautama  prob- 
ably never  heard  of  Amida,  nor  of  the  Western  Para- 
dise. He  assured  them  that  your  Reformed  Buddhism 
is  a  great  departure  from  the  original  doctrines  of 
Shaka.  He  advised  them  to  return  to  Kioto  and  en- 
deavor to  deliver  their  brethren  from  what  he  called 


SPEECH  AT  KIOTO.  327 

silly  and  mischievous  superstitions.  What  reply  will 
you  make  to  Max  Miiller's  assertions  ?  In  this  mat- 
ter he  represents  fairly  the  soundest  scholarship  of 
Europe  and  America.  When  the  creed  of  Reformed 
Buddhism  is  examined  as  an  historical  and  literary  cu- 
riosity, what  is  its  rank  among  the  best  scholars  of  the 
world  ?  It  is  an  interesting  fossil.  It  is  treated  with 
a  certain  reverence  because  it  has  been  the  faith  of 
many  millions  of  men.  But  when  it  is  put  forward 
with  the  claim  that  it  should  command  the  assent  of 
the  intellect  and  heart  of  the  modern  world,  —  what 
is  it  ?  A  laughing-stock.  I  can  say  nothing  less  than 
this  if  I  am  to  report  to  you  faithfully  what  the  learn- 
ing of  the  Occident  thinks  of  the  religious  misbeliefs 
of  the  Orient.  Let  us  have  done  with  illusions.  Uni- 
versity education  of  a  thorough  kind  has  already  been 
introduced  into  Japan.  Its  progress  is  inevitable. 
In  the  rising  light  of  adequate  learning.  Buddhism, 
Hinduism,  and  Mohammedanism  will  flee  out  of 
Asia  as  the  birds  of  night  flee  before  the  dawn.  The 
Land  of  the  Rising  Sun  will  not  be  a  land  of  bats. 

CHRISTIANITY  IK  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
You  are  intelligent,  and  wish  a  religion  that  can 
stand  alone  on  its  rendered  reasons  under  free  discus- 
sion and  without  state  patronage.  Christianity  is  the 
only  religion  that  has  ever  done  this.  Do  not  think 
that  Christianity  in  the  West  depends  for  its  respec- 
tability on  its  connection  with  the  state.  In  Germany 
and  in  England  certain  branches  of  Protestantism  en- 
joy governmental  patronage,  and  perhaps  you  are  of 
the  opinion  that   if  this  were  removed  Christianity 


328  APPENDIX. 

would  fall.  Look  at  tlie  history  of  a  free  church  in 
a  free  state  in  my  own  land.  In  the  United  States 
no  church  has  any  patronage  from  the  state,  or  has 
had  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.  Has  Chris- 
tianity failed  there  ?  In  the  year  1800  the  proportion 
of  enrolled  Protestant  church-members  in  the  United 
States  to  the  whole  population  was  one  in  fifteen  ; 
now  it  is  one  in  five.  The  United  States  have  fifty 
millions  of  people  and  ten  millions  of  evangelical 
Protestant  church-members.  Besides  these  there  are 
twelve  millions  of  children  in  the  Sabbath  schools  of 
the  United  States.  More  than  forty  millions  of  the. 
population  are  undoubtedly  in  sympathy  with  a  schol- 
arly, aggressive,  Protestant  Christianity.  This  is  a 
result  reached  under  free  discussion,  by  leaving  Chris- 
tianity to  stand  alone  without  state  patronage  and 
with  no  support  but  its  intellectual,  social,  moral,  and 
religious  merits.  In  this  enumeration  I  exclude  six 
millions  of  Roman  Catholics,  not  because  many  of 
them  are  not  Christians,  but  because  average  Roman 
Catholicism  is  a  benighted  and  corrupted  form  of 
Christianity.  By  enrolled  Protestant  church-mem- 
bers I  mean,  of  course,  not  a  population  of  merely 
baptized  and  perhaps  only  nominal  Christians,  such 
as  are  found  under  the  care  of  state  churches,  but 
church-members  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word :  that 
is,  those  who  have  made  a  solemn,  public  profession 
of  their  faith  in  Christianity  and  of  their  purpose  to 
enter  upon  a  religious  life. 

What  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  prosperity  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  other  Protestant  nations  ?  A 
scholarly    and    aggressive   evangelical   Christianity. 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  329 

This  is  the  reply  your  own  minister,  Mr.  Arinori,  re- 
ceived from  the  foremost  men  in  America  when  he 
put  to  them  this  question.  It  was  a  scholarly,  evan- 
gelical, aggressive,  Protestant  Christianity,  which 
crossed  the  Atlantic  in  the  Mayflower  and  began  the 
civilization  of  New  England  at  Plymouth  Rock.  It 
was  this  style  of  Christianity  that  has  founded  nine 
out  of  ten  of  the  colleges  of  the  United  States.  It 
was  Christianity  of  this  type  which  took  Charles  I. 
by  the  throat  and  broke  his  neck.  It  is  the  Puritan 
element  in  the  American  pojDulation  that  has  been 
the  rudder  of  American  progress.  It  was  Christian- 
ity that  planted  the  common  school  system  in  every 
American  State  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  It  was  Christianity 
that  abolished  slavery.  It  is  Christianity  that  holds 
the  conscience  of  the  nation  up  to  the  duty  of  bear- 
ing enormous  taxes  for  the  public  good.  It  is  Chris- 
tianity that  has  inspirited  the  United  States  to  the 
paying  of  their  public  debt  with  a  rapidity  that  has 
amazed  the  world.  It  is  Christianity  that  only  yes- 
terday compelled  the  lower  house  of  the  American 
Congress  to  vote  to  pay  back  to  Japan  the  indemnity 
money  of  more  than  a  million  dollars,  wrung  from 
this  empire  by  a  process  no  better  than  robbery,  after 
the  bombardment  of  Shimonoseki. 

Among  half-educated  populations,  largely  made  up 
by  immigrants  from  the  Old  World,  the  United  States 
have  a  few  obscure  infidel  organizations.  What  have 
they  been  doing  ?  A  great  majority  of  them  have  be- 
come utterly  infamous  by  connecting  themselves  with 
attacks  on  the  purity  of  the  family.     A  few  years  ago 


330  APPENDIX. 

Congress,  in  a  most  scathing  official  document,  re- 
jected a  public  petition  of  a  majority  of  these  leagues 
for  the  abolition  of  the  righteous  laws  which  prevent 
the  transmission  through  the  post-office  of  infamous 
publications.  A  few  infidels  denounced  this  enter- 
prise, but  the  majority  adhered  to  it  and  were  crushed 
under  the  heel  of  indignant  public  sentiment.  The 
editor  of  a  New  York  organ  of  these  leagues  was  con- 
victed by  a  New  York  jury  and  sent  to  jail  for  dis- 
tributing infamous  publications  through  the  mails. 
"  Scribner's  Monthly  "  described  this  leading  infidel's 
career  in  an  article  entitled  "  The  Apotheosis  of  Dirt." 
But  this  man  was  lately  received  with  open  arms  by 
the  theosophists  of  Bombay  and  Madras.  Men  are 
measured  by  their  heroes.  He  and  his  compeers  no 
more  represent  America  than  one  or  two  notoriously 
noisy  infidels  in  England  represent  Great  Britain. 
These  erratics  and  charlatans  no  more  represent  the 
countries  to  which  they  belong  than  a  cobweb  at  the 
edge  of  a  mountain  grove  represents  the  whole  forest 
of  shaking  boughs. 

'  As  to  learned  rationalism  in  the  United  States,  it 
never  had  a  better  representative  than  Theodore  Par- 
ker, but  he  is  already  outgrown.  There  exists  in 
America  no  collected  edition  of  his  works.  He  was 
once  read  in  India,  and  by  a  few  in  Japan,  as  the 
representative  of  our  foremost  religious  thought.  He 
has  had  no  success  in  founding  a  theological  party 
in  America.  His  chief  disciple,  for  some  years  a 
preacher  of  liberalism  in  Boston  and  New  York,  has 
lately  told  the  world  that  he  begins  to  doubt  his 
own  doubts,  and  has  joined  a  conservative  Unitarian 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  331 

church.  Mr.  Emerson,  who  began  his  career  with 
pantheistic  ideas,  now  calls  himself  a  Christian  The- 
ist,  and  says  that  in  this  designation  the  word  Chris- 
tian must  not  be  left  out,  for  to  leave  out  that  is  to 
leave  out  everything.  Boston,  under  Channing,  Par- 
ker, and  Emerson,  has  three  times  tried  to  found  a 
new  religion,  but  each  attempt  is  now  a  last  year's 
bird's-nest. 

THE    DECLINE    OF    RATIONALISM    IN    THE    GERMAN 
UNIVERSITIES. 

Germany  has  the  most  learned  universities  that  the 
world  now  contains.  The  German  Empire  has  five 
young  men  in  a  course  of  university  education  where 
England  has  one.  In  the  theological  faculties  of  the 
German  universities  are  found  the  acutest  modern 
experts  in  the  study  of  the  historical  and  philosoph- 
ical proofs  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity.  As 
all  scholars  know,  there  has  been  in  these  faculties  in 
the  last  fifty  years  a  great  reaction  against  infidelity 
and  unbelief.  Fifty  or  eighty  years  ago  the  evangel- 
ical lecture  rooms  in  the  theological  departments  of 
the  German  universities  were  empty,  and  the  ration- 
alistic were  crowded.  Now,  as  I  know  from  personal 
observation,  the  evangelical  are  crowded  and  the 
rationalistic  empty.  Out  of  the  thirty  prominent 
universities  of  Germany  only  three  are  under  predom- 
inantly rationalistic  influence.  Of  these  three,  Hei- 
delberg is  the  most  important ;  but  Professor  Christ- 
lieb,  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  at  Bonn,  told  me  not 
long  ago  that  this  university  lately  had  seven  theo- 
logical teachers  and  only  seven  theological  pupils.     It 


332  APPENDIX. 

has  not  had  over  forty  pupils  at  any  one  time  in  its 
theological  department  for  many  years.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  number  of  theological  pupils  at  evangelical 
Halle  is  from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred;  at 
evangelical  Berlin  from  three  hundred  to  four  hun- 
dred ;  at  evangelical  Leipzig  from  four  hundred  to 
five  hundred.  I  was  lately  at  Leipzig,  and  heard 
Luthardt,  Kahnis,  and  Delitzsch  lecturing  to  im- 
mense classes  of  three  hundred  pupils.  At  Heidel- 
berg I  have  heard  the  leading  theological  professors 
often,  and  never  saw  more  than  five,  seven,  or  nine 
pupils  before  any  one  of  them  at  once.  Lord  Bacon 
used  to  say  that  the  best  material  for  political  proph- 
ecy is  to  be  found  in  the  unforced  opinions  of  young 
men.  It  is  a  most  suggestive  sign  of  the  times  that  in 
Germany  young  men  give  their  patronage  to  evangeli- 
cal rather  than  to  rationalistic  professors  in  the  pro- 
portion of  ten  to  one.  There  is,  of  course,  rationalism 
enough  left  in  Germany  among  the  peasants  and  mer- 
chants, and  in  certain  medical,  legal,  and  philosophical 
faculties  of  the  universities  where  theological  science 
has  not  been  studied  as  a  specialty  ;  but  the  experts 
always  ultimately  lead  thought  in  Germany,  and  the 
experts  in  the  theological  faculties  have  fought  a 
great  battle  with  unbelief  in  the  last  eighty  years, 
and  the  result  has  been  a  defeat  of  doubt  on  all  cen- 
tral points.  Two  generations  since,  rationalistic  com- 
mentaries used  to  come  to  us  from  the  Elbe  and  the 
Oder;  but  now,  as  every  scholar  knows,  the  best 
evangelical  commentaries  produced  anywhere  come 
to  us  from  the  most  learned  universities  of  the  world. 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  333 

JAPANESE   STUDENTS  IN  AMERICA. 

Not  a  few  young  men  have  been  sent  from  Japan 
to  America  to  obtain  a  liberal  education.  They  have 
most  of  them  had  an  honorable  record  there.  Some- 
times they  have  taken  prizes  over  American  youth. 
In  many  cases  they  have  become  members  of  Amer- 
ican churches.  I  am  much  pained  to  be  obliged  to 
say  that  I  have  been  told  that  a  considerable  number 
of  these  students,  on  returning  to  Japan,  have  not 
maintained  their  good  standing  as  Christians.  Some 
of  these  lapsed  neophytes  tell  you  that  Christianity  is 
declining  in  power  in  the  West.  Tell  them  in  replj^ 
that  the  testimony  of  renegades  and  traitors  is  always 
suspicious.  Tell  them  that  one  in  five  of  the  Amer- 
ican population  is  now  an  enrolled  churcli-member 
where  one  in  fifteen  was  such  in  1800.  Point  out  to 
them  the  recent  triumphs  of  Christian  scholaiship 
in  England  and  Germany,  and  the  downfall  there  of 
school  after  school  of  rationalism  and  infidelity.  Ex- 
hibit to  them  the  world  -  wide  progress  of  Christian 
ideas.  Tell  them  that  if,  in  presence  of  these  facts, 
they  think  that  Christianity  is  declining,  they  are 
immensely,  colossally,  and  inexplicably  mistaken. 
Several  of  your  young  men  who  have  studied  in 
America  have  there  not  only  become  church-mem- 
bers, but  have  received  a  thorough  theological  edu- 
cation. Not  one  of  these  latter,  so  far  as  I  have 
heard,  has  failed  to  maintain  a  consistent  Christian 
course  after  his  return  to  Japan.  Every  one  of  these 
is  now  in  a  position  of  usefulness  and  honor  in  your 
new  civilization.     Ask  these  young  men,  who  know 


334  APPENDIX. 

the  facts  thoroughly,  what  the  condition  of  Chris- 
tianity is  in  the  West,  and  they  will  tell  you  that  it 
was  never  before  so  strong  there  as  to-day. 

MORAL    NECESSITY    OF    THE    NEW   BIETH    AND    THE 
ATONEMENT. 

You  are  not  only  patriotic  and  intelligent,  but  you 
are  also  naturally  religious.  You  desire  peace  with 
God  ;  and  Christianity  is  the  only  faith  known  under 
heaven  or  among  men  which  points  out  adequate 
means  of  attaining  such  peace.  Men  die  in  Japan 
as  well  as  elsewhere,  and  here  as  everywhere  serious 
men  desire  supremely  to  be  at  peace  when  they  go 
hence.  It  is  self-evident  in  Japan  as  elsewhere  that 
in  order  to  be  at  peace  with  God  we  must  be  deliv- 
ered from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  sin.  Only 
Christianity,  with  its  doctrines  of  the  New  Birth  and 
of  the  Atonement,  can  teach  human  souls  how  to  at- 
tain this  double  deliverance. 

ANJIEO'S   PROPHECY. 

Mendez  Pinto  was  drifted  to  Japan  in  a  piratical 
vessel  in  1542.  When  he  left  your  islands,  one  of 
your  countrymen,  Anjiro,  of  Satsuma,  took  refuge  in 
Pinto's  boat  and  was  carried  to  Goa,  on  the  west 
coast  of  India.  At  Goa  he  heard  and  embraced  the 
Christian  doctrines.  He  became  an  interpreter  of 
Xavier,  and  returned  to  Japan  with  him  in  1549.  I 
open  the  life  of  Xavier,  and  find  in  it  in  his  own 
words  this  remarkable  record :  *'  I  inquired  of  An- 
jiro, whether,  if  I  should  go  to  Japan,  he  thought 
that   the   inhabitants  would   embrace    Christianity. 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  336 

He  replied  that  his  people  would  not  immediately 
assent  to  what  might  be  said  to  theai ;  but  that  they 
would  investigate  what  I  might  affirm  respecting  re- 
ligion by  a  multitude  of  questions,  and  above  all  by 
observing  whether  my  conduct  agreed  with  my  words  ; 
but  if  I  should  satisfy  them  on  those  two  points  by 
my  suitable  replies  to  their  inquiries  and  by  a  con- 
duct above  all  reproach,  that  then,  as  soon  as  the 
matter  was  known  and  reflected  upon,  the  king  and 
all  the  nobility  and  the  adult  population  would  flock 
to  Christ,  being  a  nation  which  always  follows  reason 
as  their  guide."  Face  to  face  with  these  temples  and 
schools  of  Buddhism,  I  venture  to  express  my  un- 
hesitating conviction  that  the  future  of  Japan  will 
justify  Anjiro's  prediction. 

JAPAN   AS   THE   ADVANCED    GUARD   OF   REFORM    IN 
ASIA. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  a  nation  may  be  re- 
formed, one  by  its  own  independent  effort,  like  that 
of  Japan  ;  another  by  the  imposition  of  civilization 
from  without  and  the  destruction  of  political  indepen- 
dence, as  in  the  case  of  India.  In  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two  ways  weak  and  backward  nations  in 
Asia,  Africa,  and  the  isles  of  the  sea  must  be  regen- 
erated, or  else  maintain  themselves  as  hermits.  To 
do  the  latter  is  every  year  increasingly  impracticable, 
and  already  well-nigh  impossible,  except  under  the 
most  deadly  of  tropical  climates,  where  extraordinary 
physical  conditions  shut  out  the  white  races.  The 
stern  truth  is  that  in  modern  times  nations  that  can- 
not assert  and  maintain  their  independence  are  in 


336  APPENDIX. 

danger  of  being  absorbed  by  the  aggression  of  stronger 
populations.  Selfishness  and  injustice  in  the  rela- 
tions of  powerful  nations  to  weak  ones  grow  less  and 
less  dangerous,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  as  the  ages  advance  ; 
but  there  is  enough  of  both  yet  left  in  the  world  to 
make  it  certain  that  no  nation  is  safe  which  cannot 
defend  itself  against  modern  powers  by  the  use  of 
modern  weapons.  Columbiads  must  be  matched  by 
Columbiads  and  not  by  bows  and  arrows.  Japan 
cannot  successfully  compete  with  Western  nations  un- 
less she  equips  herself  as  thoroughly  as  her  rivals  are 
equipped,  not  only  in  science,  art,  and  industry,  but 
in  moral  and  religious  training  as  well.  The  secret 
of  the  prosperity  of  the  free  nations  of  the  Occident 
is  Christianity.  Until  Japan  thoroughly  learns  that 
secret,  her  strength  will  not  be  equal  to  the  tasks 
which  may  fall  to  her  not  only  in  self-deyelopment, 
but  in  self-defense. 

Japan  is  seeking  for  intellect  and  learning  through- 
out the  world  to  establish  the  foundations  of  her  pros- 
perity. All  the  departments  of  her  educational  in- 
stitutions, her  army,  her  navy,  and  her  politics,  she  has 
reorganized  on  the  most  approved  models,  or  on  what 
she  regards  as  the  best  practicable  in  the  present 
state  of  the  empire.  She  has  sent  young  men  to 
America  and  Europe  to  receive  an  advanced  educa- 
tion, and  called  them  back  to  occupy  posts  of  the 
highest  responsibility  in  the  conduct  of  her  great  re- 
forms. She  has  temporarily  availed  herself  of  the 
services  of  experts  from  German}^,  France,  England, 
and  the  United  States,  in  setting  on  foot  her  new  en- 
terprises.    In  all  this  she  has  most  jealously  main- 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  337 

tained  her  freedom  from  foreign  control  or  interfer- 
ence, and  has  set  to  the  world  an  example  of  aspira- 
tion and  independence  that  command  the  admiration 
of  mankind. 

As  I  travel  around  the  world,  I  am  meditating  con- 
stantly on  the  question :  How  can  the  weak  and 
backward  nations  of  the  earth  be  reformed?  My 
answer  is :  It  must  be  either  by  the  method  of  India 
or  by  that  of  Japan.  Absorption  from  without  or 
self-reformation  from  within  must  ultimately  be  the 
fate  of  every  people  that  is  exposed  to  the  flowing 
tides  of  civilization  in  a  world  that  is  now  commer- 
cially a  unit.  Which  of  these  two  methods  I  should 
myself  prefer  ought  to  be  evident  not  only  from  the 
fact  that  I  happen  to  be  an  American,  but  simply 
from  the  circumstance  that  I  am  a  man,  and  as  such 
in  sympathy  with  the  just  claims  of  all  other  men.  I 
abhor  the  destruction  of  the  independence  of  nation- 
alities. I  would  make  international  law  harmonious 
with  the  supreme  Christian  principle  that  we  are  to 
do  to  others  what  we  would  that  others  should  do  to 
us.  Nevertheless,  my  expectation  is  that  the  inde- 
pendence of  weak  and  unreformed  nations  will  be  de- 
stroyed. To  every  backward  people  on  the  earth 
Providence  presents  the  alternative ;  Absorption  or 
self- reformation,  which  ?  To  every  such  people  Prov- 
idence appears  to  me  to  be  uttering  in  our  day  this 
most  searching  and  comprehensive  counsel :  Choose 
self  -  reformation  on  the  most  advanced  Christian 
ideals.  Imitate  Japan.  My  hope,  my  devout  prayer 
is,  that  this  advice  may  be  heeded,  and  that  the  suc- 
cess of  Japan  may  make  her  example,  and  not  that  of 

22 


338  APPENDIX. 

India,  the  model  for  reform  in  the  East.  Let  Japan 
thoroughly  succeed,  and  the  cry  will  be  heard  in 
Corea:  Imitate  Japan.  Let  Japan  thoroughly  suc- 
ceed, and  before  another  half  century  shall  have 
passed  the  cry  will  be  heard  even  in  China:  Imitate 
Japan.  Let  Japan  thoroughly  succeed,  and  in  Af- 
ghanistan, in  Persia,  in  Arabia,  the  watchword  of 
progress  may  yet  be :  Imitate  Japan.  Let  Japan 
thoroughly  succeed,  and  on  the  Ganges  and  the  Indus 
the  inspiring  cry  of  reform  may  yet  be  :  Imitate  Ja- 
pan. Let  Japan  thoroughly  succeed,  and  in  the  cen- 
tre of  Africa,  on  the  great  lakes  and  head  waters  of 
the  mighty  rivers  of  the  Dark  Continent,  the  most 
animating  shout  of  nations  awakening  from  slumber 
and  rejoicing  in  the  morning  light  of  civilization 
may  yet  be  :  Imitate  Japan.  Thus  may  be  fulfilled, 
in  a  moral  sense,  the  aspiration  of  your  statesmen 
and  reformers,  that  the  keen  weapons  of  Japan  may 
be  made  to  shine  beyond  the  seas. 

lYEYASU'S  WATCHWOED. 

Not  many  days  ago  I  was  on  the  battle-field  of  Se- 
kigahara.  There  your  hero  lyeyasu  achieved  a  victory 
which  gave  peace  to  Japan  for  250  years.  In  the 
early  morning  I  sat  down  on  the  mound  under  the 
breathing  pines,  on  the  spot  where  he  rested  after 
that  battle.  You  remember  that  he  fought  bare- 
headed ;  but  that  after  success  was  won  he  called 
for  his  helmet  and  put  it  on,  saying,  "  After  victory, 
tighten  the  cords  of  your  helmet."  What  was  his 
meaning?  After  victory,  secure  the  fruits  of  vic- 
tory.    Let  me  commend  this  watchword  of  lyeyasu 


SPEECH   AT   KIOTO.  339 

to  New  Japan.  The  price  of  liberty  is  eternal  vigi- 
lance. You  have  begun  vast  reforms.  In  all  depart- 
ments of  your  public  life  you  have  initiated  immense 
changes.  Imitate  lyeyasu.  After  victory,  tighten  the 
cords  of  your  helmets. 

The  eyes  of  the  civilized  world  are  fastened  on  Ja- 
pan. All  who  desire  the  regeneration  of  Asia  are 
watching  intently  the  new  civilization  of  this  empire. 
What  is  the  world  looking  at  here  ?  Not  your  Inland 
Sea,  although  it  is  a  dream  of  beauty ;  not  the  land- 
scapes of  the  Tokaido  or  the  Nakasendo,  although 
they  are  of  unsurpassed  loveliness;  not  Fujisan,  al- 
though it  is  sublime  and  peerless.  The  eyes  of  the 
world  are  fastened  on  you^  young  Japanese  statesmen  ; 
on  you,  young  Japanese  professors  of  science  ;  on  you, 
young  Japanese  artists  ;  on  you^  young  Japanese  au- 
thors ;  on  you,  young  Japanese  editors  ;  on  you, 
young  Japanese  lecturers ;  on  you,  young  Japanese 
teachers  of  all  ranks ;  and,  most  of  all,  on  you,  young 
Japanese  Christians.  The  questions  the  world  is 
asking  are  whether  you  will  imitate  the  first-best  or 
only  the  second-best  of  the  institutions  of  the  Occi- 
dent ;  whether  you  will  secure  the  greatest  advan- 
tages of  a  new  civilization  without  losing  the  best 
traits  of  your  indigenous  national  culture  ;  whether 
your  orders  of  nobility  are  to  be  founded  on  mere 
ancestry  or  on  personal  achievement,  on  pedigree  or 
performance,  on  artificial  or  natural  rank  ;  whether, 
in  your  politics,  you  will  maintain  liberty  without 
license,  and  govern  your  empire  by  representative 
forms  and  yet  not  be  wrecked  by  party  spirit  ; 
whether  you  will  secure  the   right  management  of 


340  APPENDrx;. 

great  cities  as  well  as  of  rural  districts,  and  deliver 
your  populations  not  only  from  ignorance,  but  from 
intemperance,  social  vice,  poverty,  and  the  tyranny 
of  capital  over  labor ;  and  most  especially  whether 
you  will  commit  the  future  of  Japan  to  the  guidance 
of  a  false  religious  faith,  or  to  no  faith  at  all,  or  to 
the  most  spiritual  and  scholarly  forms  of  Christian- 
ity and  to  the  hand  of  Almighty  God.  The  present 
and  the  next  generation  of  the  leaders  of  thought  in 
Japan  will  be  forced  by  the  progress  of  events  to 
answer  most  of  these  questions,  and  to  do  so  in  face 
of  the  whole  world.  Your  responsibilities  are  as  im- 
mense as  your  opportunities.  Let  political  and  relig- 
ious freedom  succeed  in  Japan  and  her  example  of 
reform  may  yet  be  imitated  throughout  Asia.  Let 
Japan  fail,  and  she  will  become  a  stumbling-block 
in  the  path  of  the  advancing  civilization  of  a  whole 
continent.  These  islands  are  but  a  small  part  of 
Asia,  and  a  rudder  is  but  a  small  part  of  a  ship ;  but 
the  rudder,  rightly  managed,  guides  the  whole  ves- 
,sel,  and  so  Japan,  rightly  managed,  may  be  the  rud- 
der of  reform  in  all  Asia.  Place  the  hand  not  of 
Buddhism,  not  of  Confucianism,  not  of  infidelity,  but 
of  an  aggressive  and  scholarly  Christianity,  upon  the 
rudder  of  Japan,  and  this  empire,  by  the  blessing  of 
Almighty  God,  may  guide  all  Asia  into  a  regenerated 
and  glorious  future. 


THE  WRITINGS  OF 

JOSEPH    COOK. 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES, 

WITH  PRELUDES  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

IN  NINE  VOLUMES. 
Each  volume,  12mo,  $1.50;  the  set  $13.50. 

BIOLOGY.     lUustrated.     Eighteenth  Edition. 
TRANSCENDENTALISM.     Sixth  Edition. 
ORTHODOXY.     Sixth  Edition. 
CONSCIENCE.     Ninth  Edition. 
HEREDITY.     Sixth  Edition. 
MARRIAGE.     Sixth  Edition. 
LABOR.     Third  Edition. 
SOCIALISM.     Third  Edition. 
OCCIDENT.     (A  new  volume.) 


ORIENT.     (Mr.  Cook's  latest  book.) 


For  searching  philosophienl  analysis,  for  keen  and  merciless  logic,  for  dogmatic 
assertion  of  eternal  truth  in  the  august  name  of  science  such  as  thrills  the  soul  to  its 
foundations,  for  widely  diversified  and  most  apt  illustrations  drawn  from  a  wide 
field  of  reading  and  observation,  for  true  poetic  feeling,  for  a  pathos  without  any 
mixture  of  sentimentality ,  for  candor,  for  moral  elevation,  and  for  noble  loyalty  to 
those  great  Christian  verities  which  the  author  affirms  and  vindicates,  these  wonder- 
ful Lectures  stand  forth  alone  amidst  the  contemporary  literature  of  the  class  to 
which  they  belong. — London  Quarterly  Review. 


CRITICAL  NOTICES  OF  MR.  COOK'S 

BOSTON  MOl^DAY  LEOTUKES. 


President  James  McCosh,  Princeton  College,  in  the  Catholic  Pres- 
byterian for  September,  1879. 

Mr.  Cook  did  not  take  up  the  work  he  has  accomplished,  as  a 
trade,  or  by  accident,  or  from  impulse  ;  but  for  years  he  had 
been  preparing  for  it,  and  prepared  for  it  by  an  overruling  guid- 
ance. I  regard  Joseph  Cook  as  a  Heaven-ordained  man.  He 
comes  at  the  fit  time  ;  that  is,  at  the  time  he  is  needed.  .  .  .  He 
lightens  and  thunders,  throwing  a  vivid  light  on  a  topic  by  an  ex- 
pression or  comparison,  or  striking  a  presumptuous  error  as  by  a 
bolt  from  heaven.  He  is  not  afraid  to  discuss  the  most  ab- 
stract, scientific,  or  philosophic  themes  before  a  popular  audi- 
ence ;  he  arrests  his  hearers  first  by  his  earnestness,  then  by  the 
clearness  of  his  exposition,  and  fixes  the  whole  in  the  mind  by 
the  earnestness  of  his  moral  purpose. 


Rev.  Professor  A.  P.  Pedbody,  of  Harvard  University,  in  the 
Independent. 

Joseph  Cook  is  a  phenomenon  to  be  accounted  for.  No  other 
American  orator  has  done  what  he  has  done,  or  anything  like  it ; 
and,  prior  to  the  experiment,  no  voice  would  have  been  bold 
enough  to  predict  its  success. 

We  reviewed  Mr.  Cook's  "  Lectures  on  Biology  "  with  unqual- 
ified praise.  In  the  present  volume  we  find  tokens  of  the  same 
genius,  the  same  intensity  of  feeling,  the  same  lightning  flashes 
of  impassioned  eloquence,  the  same  vise-like  hold  on  the  rapt 
attention  and  absorbing  interest  of  his  hearers  and  readers.  We 
are  sure  that  we  are  unbiased  by  the  change  of  subject ;  for, 
though  we  dissent  from  some  of  the  dogmas  which  the  author 
recognizes  in  passing,  there  is  hardly  one  of  his  consecutive 
trains  of  thought  in  which  we  are  not  in  harmony  with  him,  or 
one  of  his  skirmishes  in  which  our  sympathies  are  not  wholly  on 
his  side. 

2 


Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Hill,  Ex-President  of  Harvard  University,  in  the 
Christian  Register. 

These  lectiires  are  crowded  so  full  of  knowledge,  of  thought, 
of  argument,  illumined  with  such  passages  of  eloquence  and 
power,  spiced  so  frequently  with  deep-cutting  though  good-na- 
tured irony,  that  I  could  make  no  abstract  from  them  without 
utterly  mutilating  them. 


Professor  Francis  Bowen,  Harvard  University. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  work  on  conscience  in  which  the  true 
theory  of  ethics  is  so  clearly  and  forcibly  presented,  together 
with  the  logical  inferences  from  it  in  support  of  the  great  truths 
of  religion. 

The  Princeton  Review. 

Mr.  Cook  has  already  become  famous  ;  and  these  lectures  are 
among  the  chief  works  that  have,  and  we  may  say  justly,  made 
him  so.  Their  celebrity  is  due  partly  to  the  place  and  circum- 
stances of  their  delivery,  but  still  more  to  their  inherent  power, 
without  which  no  adventitious  aids  could  have  lifted  them  into 
the  deserved  prominence  they  have  attained.  .  .  .  Mr.  Cook  is 
a  great  master  of  analysis. 


Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

It  is  not  often  that  Boston  people  honor  a  public  lecturer  so 
much  as  to  crowd  to  hear  him  at  the  noon-tide  of  a  week-day  ; 
and,  when  it  does  this  month  after  month,  the  fact  is  proof  posi- 
tive that  his  subject  is  one  of  engrossing  interest.  Mr.  Cook, 
perhaps  more  than  any  gentleman  in  the  lecture-field  the  past 
few  years,  has  been  so  honored. 

The  Independent. 

We  know  of  no  man  that  is  doing  more  to-day  to  show  the 
reasonableness  of  Christianity,  and  the  unreasonableness  of  un- 
belief ;  nor  do  we  know  of  any  one  who  is  doing  it  with  such  ad- 
mirable tolerance  yet  dramatic  intensity. 

3 


Rev.  R.  Payne  Smith,  Dean  of  Canterbury. 
The  lectures  are  remarkably  eloquent,  vigorous,  and  powerful, 
and  no  one  could  read  them  without  great  benefit.  They  deal 
with  very  important  questions,  and  are  a  valuable  contribution 
towards  solving  many  of  the  difficulties  which  at  this  time  trou- 
ble many  minds. 

Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon,  London. 

These  are  very  wonderful  lectures.  We  bless  God  for  rais- 
ing up  such  a  champion  for  his  truth  as  Joseph  Cook.  Few  could 
hunt  down  Theodore  Parker,  and  all  that  race  of  misbelievers, 
as  Mr.  Cook  has  done.  He  has  strong  convictions,  the  courage 
of  his  convictions,  and  force  to  support  his  courage.  In  reasoning, 
the  infidel  party  have  here  met  their  match.  We  know  of  no 
other  man  one  half  so  well  qualified  for  the  peculiar  service  of 
exploding  the  pretensions  of  modern  science  as  this  great 
preacher  in  whom  Boston  is  rejoicing.  Some  men  shrink  from 
this  spiritual  wild-boar  hunting  ;  but  Mr.  Cook  is  as  happy  in  it 
as  he  is  expert.  May  his  arm  be  strengthened  by  the  Lord  of 
hosts  ! 

The  British  Quarterly  Review. 

Mr.  Cook  is  a  man  of  wide  reading,  tenacious  memory,  acute 
discrimination,  and  great  power  of  popular  exposition.  Nothing 
deters  him.  He  plunges  in  medias  res,  however  abstruse  the 
speculation,  and  his  vigor  and  fire  carry  all  before  them.  He 
h?vs  intuitive  genius  for  pricking  wind-bags,  and  for  reducing 
over-sanguine  and  exaggerated  hypotheses  to  their  exact  value. 
He  has  called  a  halt  in  many  an  impetuous  march  of  science,  and 
exposed  a  fundamental  fallacy  in  many  a  triumphant  argument. 

The  London  Spectator. 

Vigorous  and  suggestive  ;  interesting  from  the  glimpses  they 
give  of  the  present  phases  of  speculation  in  what  is  emphatically 
the  most  thoughtful  community  in  the  United  States. 

*3^*  For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.  Sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on  re- 
ceipt of  price  by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY, 
Boston  and  New  York. 
4 


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